Elevators

Dental Elevators are essential surgical hand instruments used to luxate (loosen) teeth, expand the alveolar bone socket, and remove broken root fragments prior to applying forceps or when forceps cannot gain a grip.

• Primary Function: Severs the periodontal ligament fibers and lifts the tooth or root tip using mechanical principles (lever, wedge, or wheel-and-axle).

• Core Components: A heavy handle for grip, a strong shank, and a working tip (blade) designed to wedge between the tooth root and the socket wall.

Common Types of Dental Elevators

• Straight Elevator (Bein / Apexo): Features a straight blade; used for initial luxation of anterior and posterior teeth across all quadrants.

• Cryer Elevators (Pairs: Left & Right): Features sharp, triangular-shaped side-cutting blades; ideal for removing multi-rooted lower molars after one root has already been extracted.

• Coupland Elevators: Straight, chisel-like blades with concave inner surfaces; used to wedge and expand the bone socket around stout roots.

• Warwick James Elevators: Small, delicate set (Straight, Left, Right) with flat handles; designed for precise root tip removal and third molar extractions.

• Apexo / Root Tip Elevators (Heidbrink / Root Tip Picks): Fine, pointed tips designed specifically to tease out small broken root fragments deep inside the socket.

• Luxators: Feature thin, sharp, flat blades meant for cutting the periodontal ligament directly rather than applying heavy lever force.