Validity Assessment of Wooden Spatula and Toothpick

Determining the prevalence of dental caries is a necessary step for health care planners to identify resources needed for dental services in the community and to provide preventive and curative services to combat dental health problems. Field surveys of cross-sectional design are important tools to describe the status of dental problems in the community.1-3 The visuotactile method has been widely used for detection of dental caries in field surveys with the help of mouth mirror and dental probe.4 Three important functions of dental mirror are allowing indirect vision by the dentist, reflecting light onto desired surfaces, and retraction of soft tissues.5 The use of a sharp dental probe in the detection and diagnosis of carious lesions has been long discussed, being controversial since several years. Clinicians trust on it as an adjunct to their visual assessment. Historically, coherence of a sharp instrument gently forced into a pit or fissure was thought to correlate with the presence of caries. So, detection of dental caries was laying on the catch of the instrument on the occlusal surface.6 Dental probe also helps to remove food debris that may mask the caries lesion.7 In recent years, the use of the metallic probes with sharp tips for caries detection has been discouraged.6 The practice is believed to add little to the diagnostic process,8 and it is further believed that it might cause iatrogenic damage to the enamel surface, thus promoting caries initiation or progression. It has been shown that the sharp metallic probes can damage the tooth structure irreversibly, rendering a sound and remineralizable subsurface lesion as a cavitated lesion.6,9 According to Pitts,10 the potential for such iatrogenic damage from the use of a sharp explorer in a visuotactile method, combined with the lack of any evidence of any additional diagnostic benefit, contraindicates sharp instruments for the diagnosis of dental caries. Sharp instruments also possess the risk of intraoral transmission of Streptococcus mutans.11 Wooden spatula and toothpick carry relatively low risk of intraoral transmission of S. mutans than metallic instruments 1,4Reader, 2,3Associate Professor, 5Senior Lecturer, 6Professor and Head 1Department of Public Health Dentistry, Maitri College of Dentistry and Research Centre, Anjora, Chhattisgarh, India 2Department of Prosthodontics, Government College of Dentistry, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India 3Department of Preventive Dental Sciences, Ibn Sina National College for Medical Studies, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 4Department of Public Health Dentistry, Goenka Research Institute of Dental Science, Piplaj, Gujarat, India 5,6Department of Public Health Dentistry, People’s Dental Academy, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India