We recently had occasion to order a lot of toothbrushes, and received a catalog with our shipment from Practicon Dental. There are few things better than a catalog specific to a particular industry. There are so many items that can be applied to various projects having nothing to do with teeth. I’ve never noticed a small vacuum former in a catalog before. There are compartmentalized storage boxes have plenty of utility beyond storing dental impressions. Diamond wire (listed as diamond floss) could be very useful to have around for filing in tight places. Another interesting tool I hadn’t seen before was a small sandblaster.

If you know someone who need to be scared into proper dental hygiene, you can get gross-out posters of what happens when you don’t take care of your teeth. Speaking of scary, for your next ultra-creepy halloween costume, there are “Marvy Masque Cone Face Masks,” which are sure to frighten: especially the clown version. I’m not so sure they will “increase smiles, decrease anxiety” as claimed.

On the less useful, but more interesting front, there is information on dosimetry services so you can track your x-ray exposure. You can order business card dental floss packets. I’m thinking that “tidy tube winders” would make a great give-away for people with as many half-used tubes of glue as we have. But one of my favorite items were these adhesive-tip applicators, which “help you securely hold and place fragile or small” things. Those definitely fall on the useful side. I’m not sure what for yet, but I’ll think of something.

Clearly there are many tools and supplies in the Practicon catalog that are applicable to a much wider audience than just dental practices. We may have to order from them again, and not just for bristlebots!