Orthodontic Instruments

Introduction for Dental Assistants

Bird beak

Square and rounded beaks

Three prong plier

Squeeze the handles

Matthew plier

Used for…

Not used for…

Band pusher

Band pusher (large)

Hard wire cutter

Used to cut large wire (not used in the mouth)

Ligature cutter

Used intra orally to cut ligature (steel)

Distal end cutter

Used intra orally to cut the distal of wires

Proper positionning

Squeeze and cut

Howe plier

Used to insert and remove wire intra-orally