The dental ‘probe’ or ‘explorer’ can be used by your dentist to gently feel the bumps and valleys on the surface of the tooth. If the dentist notices any ‘tackiness’ on the surface of the tooth, it might be a soft area which would indicate decay is present.
Unfortunately these areas of early decay may not show up on an x-ray. So our dentist will be as gentle as possible when touching your teeth with the explorer.
A lot of people are scared of the probe because for years, the ‘gold standard’ for checking for decay was to stick the probe in and give it a good shove! We now recognize that using too much force can compromise the tooth structure. While the explorer may still have to be used to figure out if decay is present, it is used much more gently nowadays.