ccsmith51

ccsmith51

Well Known Member
Some time ago I was getting my teeth cleaned and asked the dental hygienist if her dental picks ever wore out, and if so, what did she do with them. She told me they did, and she saved them to send to dentists in less privileged countries where they reground them to be used again.

I asked her if she might have an extra one that I could have, to clean spark plugs, cracks, and other odd jobs. She said sure and brought out four. They have turned out to be useful for a number of tasks.

So, if you think you might have the need for a tool to get into cracks, remove lead balls from plugs, pick up washers, and a host of other jobs, play nice to your dental hygienist and see if he/she has any old dental picks you could have.
 
I have some from the local independent electronics shop -- they stock a whole section of "tools" like that.

Very useful, but they make me cringe when I first look at them. :D
 
My building partner and my son are both dentists. I have a large selection of dental picks and tweezers in the shop that I use almost on a daily basis. Ask your dentist or hygienist as they most likely have a drawer full of old ones and wouldn't mind giving you a few.
 
Gottem in my toolbox

My dad is a retired dentist and a pilot..I have a bunch in my toolbox. Ask for the broken hemostats too...good stuff.
 
Dental pics

For those who don't have a dentist ... :D ... and Don't know where to get pics:

The fly market at Sun n Fun and Oshkosh carry lots of different styles. Used several today plucking at my spark plugs for my condition inspection.
 
I asked my dentist once if he could keep some old ones for me, and he said sure, he has a few customers who ask from time to time. He said to give him some time to collect some and he'd let me know. I got a call the next day from the receptionist, who said to come by and pick up my used tools. I went by to find a bundle of about 20 different types of dental pick, scraper, poker, tamper, etc. All are well used, and some are missing a tool on one end. I think i've put more than half of them to use already, and I doubt i'll ever need to ask again.
 
GLPalinkas said:
The fly market at Sun n Fun and Oshkosh carry lots of different styles.
Click to expand...

Last summer I found sets of various sized hemostats, and sets of various sized surgical scissors for $5 per set at the Aeromart in the Fly Market. There was about ten various sized instruments per set, zip-tied together.

Got a set of cheap Chinese-made dental-pick-like instruments at Harbor Freight for a couple bucks too. Not as good as real dental picks, but they'll get the job done better than nothing.
 
Surplus stores

I bought a couple of them at Princess Auto, its the Canadian store/version of Harbor freight. $.99 each, cant beat that and have been very handy (they have picks, and hemostats etc). Heck with one of those, and a few self dentisting videos on youtube who even needs a dentist anymore?? More money for avgas. :D:eek:
 
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