On 20/04/2015 11:58, James Harris wrote:
The BBC's Jeremy Vine show has a piece coming up today on some kind of
DIY dentistry. I was fairly amazed at the idea though I haven't heard
the details yet.

Apparently it is possible to buy hygenists tools for home use. For
example, a web search brought up

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008URJGTG

Looking at the supplier's prices for those and other items, I suspect
they are importers. The most probable place of origin being Pakistan, as
they have long been producers of medical and dental instruments. When I
was in the trade, Pakistan made instruments, other than those made by
outsourced German factories, were a by-word for poor quality steel and
bad workmanship. I know the supplier says that the instruments are CE
marked, but, I have spoken to some of the manufacturers at trade
exhibitions and would not be confident that it meant any more than that
the purchaser had asked for instruments with the CE Mark.

Having said that, there is not a lot to go wrong with dental probes.
They might bend if made from the wrong sort of steel, but they are not
likely to kill you.

These are dental scalers. Even being able to buy things like these is a
surprise. My hygenist once refused to do a certain piece of cleaning
work which was about removing clear cement from the surface of a tooth,
preferring to refer that part of the job to the dentist so that he would
take responsibility for distinguishing cement from tooth material. So
the idea of buying tools to 'scrape' your own teeth is surprising, to
say the least.

Anyone tried dental DIY?

Not me and I used to make the tools.


--
Colin Bignell