The Use of the Operating Microscope in Dentistry

Dentists have operated on human dentition for centuries aided by a magnifying loupe or even with their naked eyes. With the growing need for the performance of dental oral surgery, however, it has become quite compulsory for the dentist to use such operating instruments such as the dental operating microscope to help them in the preservation of their patients’ smiles.

Operating microscopes could also be used in the detection of caries or tooth decay or even simple cleaning and scaling of teeth. In both cases, there might be parts of the mouth that cannot be seen easily by the human eye and might be neglected by the dentist while doing regular dental check-up. Although unaided visual examinations are still very much valid in such check-ups, looking at the patient’s teeth and dentition under the dental microscope would help the dentist in locating decay or other disorders even in the parts of the mouth that are hard to reach.

A typical operating microscope is equipped with a binocular eyepiece that would give the dentist or oral care specialist a stereoscopic view of the patient’s mouth and teeth. This surgical microscope also has several objectives for better magnification and even zoom capabilities, which is particularly useful in such fields of dentistry as endodontics, which deals with the tooth pulp, the gums and the surrounding areas. A dental microscope could also be attached to a camera or a monitor so that the dentist could also show the patient what is being done to their tooth.

This will solve some problems that are related to the use of dental microscope, since looking through the eyepieces and being the only one who can see the magnified view of the patient’s mouth, the patient might feel excluded from the operation. If the patient can look at the monitor and see the dentist-view of the dental examination being done, it would remove the feeling of having a barrier between the dentist and the patient.