Dentist's Decay detector

So I went in to have a cavity filled for the first time in years today. Pretty much the same as always, except one new thing. After drilling and prodding he asked the assistant to do something that was obviously from the actions a stain or something to make sure he had gotten all the nasty out. Seemed kind of cool, but seeing as how It’s kind of hard to carry on a conversation with a numb mouth and numerous instruments in my mouth, I made sure to remember the name to look it up and what it does when I got home.

But uhh… i forgot it :smack:

It was a simple one word name. He just said something like “Can you do the XXXX now?” And she put some on.

Anybody have an idea what the name probably was?

Caries?

No, it was the name of the substance I think.

Etch?

That’s probably it. Having had a couple of cavities in the past couple of years, they’ve changed up how they’re done- they etch the dentin, then use some sort of bonding agent, and then build up layers of resin that are hardened with a little UV light, and then finally shape and fit it with the drill.

It’s a whole lot different than the old drill and jam amalgam in style of fillings I got 20-25 years ago.

He did do the etch preparer stuff to but that was after the detector stuff.

It was actually in all.

  1. Detector
  2. Etcher
    3 Desensitiser
    4 Donder
    5 Three sets of filling and light.

Bonder not Donder

I’d hope the painkillers came BEFORE he started drilling and mucking around with the tooth.

Hehe, no it’s some kind of permanent layer that is supposed to buffer the nerves so they aren’t so sensitive to hot and cold through the filling.