MAKING YOUR OWN DENTAL INSTRUMENTS*

Here are a few ideas for making instruments at low cost. Try to use materials that are available where you live.

Can you think of any other materials you can use?

Each instrument has two parts: a handle and a working piece at the end. Join them together:

If you make the end flat, it can prevent the working piece from turning. Pound the working piece with a hammer and make a flat slot in the handle so the working piece cannot turn.

*l am grateful to Aaron Yaschine for the ideas in this section.

Making the Three Instruments You Use Most

Mirror:

Use old pieces of mirror or a shiny piece of tin. You even can use a polished silver coin. A tongue depressor is the handle.

Probe:

Use the end of a paper clip, pin or needle for the working piece. Rub it against a smooth stone to sharpen it. Bend it so it can reach around to the back of a tooth. Attach the working piece to a smooth stick handle (p. 170).

Tweezers:

Draw the shape on a piece of tin and then cut it out with strong scissors. Use a file or a smooth stone to make the edges smooth. Bend in half to make the tweezers.

Making Other Instruments and Supplies

Spoon:

Bend a paper clip or needle. Flatten the end. Then pound a small stone against the end, to make it hollow. Make 2 bends and attach to a stick handle.

Filling Tool:

Remove the heads from 2 long screws.

With a file and hammer, make the end of one screw flat and the end of the other screw round

Bend each end in the direction of the edge (not the face) of the flat side.

Attach both working pieces to a small stick handle.

Dental Floss:

When using string to clean between your teeth, you may have trouble getting this string down in between your teeth. Sometimes, also, the string gets caught there, forming a kind of 'bird's nest'. Three things can cause problems with dental floss:

• 1. An incorrectly made filling—flat and rough instead of round and smooth. Replace it.
• 2. Teeth too tight together. Use the floss on a tooth. Then pull the string out from between the teeth as you press the free end down against the gum with the fingers of your other hand. If there is a sharp filling on a tooth, the string will stay under it as it comes free.
• 3. String that is too thick. Make thinner but stronger floss by waxing as in this picture. The wax also will make the floss easier to slide between your teeth.

(1) Soak thin string in hot wax. (2) To remove the extra wax, pull the string between your fingers.