Surgical Instrument Glossary
This Surgical Instrument Glossary defines the pattern names, eponyms, and abbreviations used across oral-surgery instrumentation — the vocabulary behind every reference number on our Surgical Instrument Comparison Chart. Every definition describes the base clinical pattern; individual manufacturers add their own suffixes for finish, coating, serration, and handle options.
| Extraction Forceps | |
| American Pattern | Forceps with fully polished, pin-free hinges and handles gripped in a palm hold. The dominant style in North American practice; patterns carry numbers such as 150, 151, 23, 88L/88R. |
| English Pattern | Forceps with visible hinge pins or screws and slimmer handles, used with a vertical grip. Patterns are numbered separately from American designs (#7, #13, #17, #18, #22, #79). |
| Universal (Forceps) | A beak design intended for use on either the left or right side of the arch, as opposed to side-specific left/right patterns. |
| Anatomical Beaks | Beaks contoured to follow crown and root anatomy for a more positive grip; often offered with serrations. |
| Serrated Beaks | Fine cross-grooves cut into the gripping surface of the beaks to increase friction on the tooth. Shown as SER or serrated suffixes in many code systems. |
| Cowhorn (#23 / #16) | Lower molar forceps whose pointed, curved beaks engage the bifurcation between the roots; squeezing the handles elevates the tooth. #23 uses a straight handle, #16 a hook handle. |
| Cryer 150 / 151 | The classic upper (150) and lower (151) universal extraction patterns; the S versions are shortened pediatric forms and the A versions carry parallel beaks. |
| Parallel Beaks | Beaks that remain parallel as they close, gripping the root trunk evenly to reduce crushing forces — the basis of most atraumatic forceps lines. |
| Root Fragment Forceps | Slender, fine-tipped forceps (often bayonet-shaped for upper access) used to retrieve fractured root tips. |
| Pediatric / Klein Pattern | Reduced-size forceps for deciduous teeth; Klein-series versions add a spring between the handles for one-hand control. |
| Elevators & Luxation | |
| Apexo Elevator (301/302/303) | Fine straight or angled elevators used to loosen roots and root tips; 301 is the straight 2.5 mm standard. |
| Bein / Straight Root Elevator | A straight gouge-form elevator inserted along the root surface and rotated to luxate the tooth; sized by blade width. |
| Cryer Elevator (Flag Pattern) | Paired left/right triangular "flag" blades used through an empty socket to elevate the adjacent root; supplied in large, medium, and small flag sizes. |
| Seldin Elevator (34 / 34S / 46) | Wide gouge-form elevators with a gentle back curve; #46-type patterns are back-action variants. |
| Back-Action (R suffix) | An elevator blade angled to work with a pulling (lingual-to-buccal) action rather than a push; often marked with an R. |
| Heidbrink Root Tip Pick | Fine straight (#1) and paired curved (#2 left / #3 right) picks for teasing out small apical fragments. |
| Luxating Elevator / Luxator | A thin, sharp, slightly concave blade that cuts the periodontal ligament while compressing socket bone, easing the tooth out with minimal trauma; sized by blade width and supplied straight or curved. |
| Periotome | An even finer ligament-cutting blade used vertically in the periodontal space before extraction; not designed for leverage. |
| Crane Pick | A heavy pick used with purchase-point technique to elevate whole roots or teeth. |
| Warwick James | Small English-pattern elevators supplied straight, left, and right, favored for third molars and root tips. |
| Periosteal Elevators & Retraction | |
| Periosteal Elevator | A blunt or semi-sharp blade used to reflect the mucoperiosteum from bone at the start of a flap; usually double-ended with two blade forms. |
| Molt #9 | The most common periosteal pattern: a broad 7–7.5 mm curved blade paired with a narrow pointed end. |
| Prichard (PR3 / PPR3) | A periosteal with one large flat retraction blade and one small curved reflection tip. |
| Seldin #23 | A wide flat retractor/periosteal with two broad ends for heavy flap retraction. |
| Raspatory | A scraping elevator used to clean soft tissue from bone; several surgical curette patterns double as raspatories. |
| Minnesota Retractor | A bent flat blade retracting both cheek and flap; the Cawood-Minnesota is the standard oral surgery form. |
| Weider Retractor | A broad, heart-shaped ("sweetheart") tongue retractor in small and large widths. |
| Mouth Gag / Bite Prop | Devices holding the mouth open during surgery — ratchet gags (Denhart, Molt) or solid rubber/silicone props. |
| Bone Instruments | |
| Rongeur | Spring-handled bone nipper for trimming alveolar bone; classic dental patterns include Friedman (narrow), Blumenthal (30° standard) and Cleveland #4. |
| Bone File (Miller-Colburn) | A double-ended file for smoothing bone edges after extraction; #1 and #2 sizes come in parallel-cut and cross-cut versions. |
| Lucas Curette | A spoon-shaped double-ended bone curette for debriding sockets, sized by spoon width in millimetres. |
| Molt Curette (2/4) | A double-ended surgical curette pairing a small #2 and large #4 spoon. |
| Miller Surgical Curette | Angled-shank bone curettes (#9–#11 group) used for cyst and socket debridement. |
| Ochsenbein Chisel | A periodontal bone chisel with semicircular cutting notches; #1 and #2 differ in which face of the curve is sharpened. |
| Osteotome | A bone chisel driven with a mallet — or pushed, in sinus-lift technique — supplied with concave or convex tips in graduated diameters. |
| Surgical Mallet | A weighted mallet, solid stainless or with replaceable plastic inserts, used with chisels and osteotomes. |
| Trephine / Mucosa Punch | Rotary or hand cylinders that remove a circular core of bone or a disc of soft tissue, sized by diameter. |
| Sinus Lift Curette | Long, angled blunt-edged spoons for elevating the sinus membrane from the antral floor; supplied in graded reach and widths. |
| Suturing & Soft Tissue | |
| Needle Holder | A locking instrument for driving suture needles. Common dental patterns: Mayo-Hegar (large), Crile-Wood (medium), Derf (short), Mathieu (spring-ratchet palm pattern) and Castroviejo (micro, spring-lock). |
| TC (Tungsten Carbide) | Hardened carbide inserts in needle-holder or scissor jaws for grip and edge life; usually signalled by gold-plated rings or a TC suffix. |
| Hemostat | A locking, serrated-jaw clamp for vessels and tissue: Halstead-Mosquito (small, straight or curved) and Kelly (larger). |
| Tissue Forceps (1×2) | Thumb forceps whose tips interlock one-into-two teeth ("rat tooth") for a positive soft-tissue grip — Adson and Semken patterns are the dental standards. |
| Dressing Forceps | Thumb forceps with serrated, non-toothed tips for handling dressings and delicate tissue. |
| Adson | A short (12 cm) thumb-forceps pattern with a fine tapered tip, made in dressing and 1×2 tissue versions. |
| Iris Scissors | Small 11.5 cm fine-pointed scissors, straight or curved, for delicate tissue and suture work. |
| La Grange Scissors | Double-curved (compound) scissors giving access around flaps for gingival trimming. |
| Goldman-Fox Scissors | Slim curved perio scissors, commonly 13 cm, one blade often serrated to hold tissue. |
| Metzenbaum Scissors | Longer blunt dissecting scissors for undermining tissue planes. |
| SuperCut (SC) | A scissor grind with one knife-edged blade and one micro-serrated blade for a cleaner cut; usually marked by a black or gold ring and an SC suffix. |
| Markings, Materials & Abbreviations | |
| DE (Double-Ended) | One handle carrying two working ends — often mirror-image left/right or two sizes of the same pattern. |
| TiN (Titanium Nitride) | A gold-colored ceramic coating that hardens cutting edges and lowers friction; common on luxation instruments. |
| Base Pattern Designation | The core catalogue number identifying a clinical pattern, excluding maker-specific suffixes for finish, coating, serration, or handle. This is the level at which comparison-chart equivalents are matched. |
| Pattern / Eponym | Most surgical instruments are named for a designer (Cryer, Seldin, Molt, Prichard…) plus a number; different manufacturers produce their own versions of the same named pattern. |
| Serrated Blade (SR) | Elevator or scissor blades with fine gripping teeth; usually an SR or SER suffix. |
| Left / Right (L/R) | Side-specific working ends. Note that some makers label orientation from the operator’s view and others from the patient’s — pattern numbers, not L/R labels, are the reliable identity. |
