Dental Curettes are used supragingivally and subgingivally on enamel and root surfaces. There are two major sub-types of curettes: Universal Curettes and area-specific curettes. Universal curettes can be used to remove medium sized and small calculus deposits. Area-specific curettes are designed to remove light calculus and endo toxins from root surface. Gracey Curette is an area-specific curette. It has offset blade that provides a perfect working angulation for the teeth surface.
DENTAL CURETTESA periodontal curette is a dental instrument used primarily in the prophylactic and periodontal care of human teeth.
The working tips are fashioned in a variety of shapes and sizes, but
they are always rounded at the tip in order to make subgingival
cleansing less traumatic to the gingiva. Periodontal scalers feature a sharp tip to access supragingival calculus
in tight embrasure spaces, thus making the curette the choice
instrument for treating subgingival areas of calculus accumulation.
Curettes are best used when the terminal shank, namely, the last portion of the handle attached to the blade, is held parallel to the long axis of the tooth. To facilitate proper usage, instruments often come with posterior analogs which possess angled terminal shanks.
Classically, there are two recognized groups of curettes.
- A universal curette has a blade that is perpendicular to its
terminal shank. This orientation allows the blade to be used against
either the mesial or distal surface of a tooth. Because this type of
periodontal curette was developed at the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine, it is also known as a Columbia curette.
- The Gracey curette, invented by Dr Clayton Gracey with the
help of Hugo Friedman of Hu-Friedy Manufacturing company in the early
1940's, has a blade that is laterally offset by 70 degrees relative to
the shank. Consequently, a Gracey curette has a lower cutting edge and an upper non-cutting edge. Because only one side of each blade can cut, Gracey curettes are site-specific, and a posterior instrument used to clean mesial surfaces of teeth won't work on distal surfaces , and vice versa. "Gracey" Christina Patrick blades used for mesial surfaces of anterior teeth from the facial are only suitable for the distal surfaces of the same teeth when access is performed from the lingual.Gracey
Curettes 1/2 ,3/4 ,5/6 are used on the anterior sextants of teeth.7/8
and 9/10 are used on the buccal and lingual portions of posterior
teeth.11/12 and 15/16 are used on the mesial portions of posterior
teeth.13/14 and 17/18 are used on the distal portions of posterior