2 Instruments That Are A Must Have For Your Dental Practice

Good morning and welcome to the Shatkin F.I.R.S.T.® Monday morning minute.

Hi, I’m Dr. Todd Shatkin and welcome to this Monday Morning Minute. Today I want to give you a tip of the week. And this is something I’ve been using in my dental practice for years. And it really saves me a lot of time and a lot of grief. There’s two instruments that are a must have for your dental practice. It’s not something that Shatkin F.I.R.S.T.® Sells, but I’m going to tell you where to buy it. And I’m going to tell you that it’s a must and it’s not going to cost you much money.

You need to have these in your office. In fact, you need to have several of them in your office because I use them all day long. The first is what we call I call it a crown tapper. It’s a crown remover instrument. It’s got a hook on the end and it’s got a spring here. This is from Carl Schumacher. Both these instruments are made by Carl Schumacher. I’m sure you can get them at other locations, other companies, but I’ve bought these from Carl Schumacher for years. I really like that company. They have some specialty products that help everyday practitioners.

This is a spring loaded crown remover. It’s great to remove your temporaries, and it’s great if you have a loose crown or a loose bridge. It’s very, very simple to use. You take the hook and you get it underneath the edge of the restoration. And it’s going to be a little hard for me to show you. But you take it, you take the hook and you pop it off.

And what will happen is the crowns will pop right off. You may have to do it once or twice. You don’t want to go like this a bunch of times. You want to do it one time. If it doesn’t come off one time, do it again. You got to warn the patients. Going to be loud and it’s going to be a little bit scary, but it should pop off with one full pop, okay?

This is a must have in a dental office for anybody who makes crown and bridge work or implant work. The temporaries pop off very easily with this. You don’t have to give it a full that one. You can do it like a half. If you’re trying to remove a permanent crown, you need a full tap. Okay?

The other instrument that I think is a must have in a dental office is what I call a crown twister. Now, this is a crown remover. Essentially, all you do is make a slit in the side of the crown, put the key of this instrument in there, and just twist until the crown loosens. And then you can pull it right off, either with your fingers or even with a crown tamper. But you twist and turn, twist and turn. And it’s got three different ways to do it. You can go like this. You can go like this and you can go like this. You’ll see, there’s a slot on all sides of this so that you can twist and turn that crown off.

These instruments come and come so handy for me in my office every day I use these instruments, both of them. You got to get them. You get them from Carl Schumacher dental. That’s your tip of the week. I’ll see you next week on the Monday Morning Minute.