What are elevators & periotomes?

Elevators luxate a tooth before forceps are applied, cutting the periodontal ligament and expanding the socket so the tooth can be delivered with less force. The family covers three distinct jobs that are often confused: straight and triangular elevators that lever against bone, luxating elevators and periotomes with thin blades designed to be driven down the ligament space rather than levered, and fine picks for retrieving fractured root tips.

How the elevators & periotomes range is organised

Triangular / Cryer:

#25, #26, #44, #45 and #46 — paired left and right for engaging a retained root through the interseptal bone.

Seldin:

#1L and #1R, #3, #4L and #4R, #34, #34S, #81 and #A, for broad luxation against bone.

Luxating and periotome:

2mm, 3mm, 4mm and 5mm blades, straight and curved, plus the Elite periotome range angled in, angled out and curved.

Root tips and apical:

Heidbrink picks #1, #2, #3 and DE #2/3, Crane pick #8, apical #301–#303, root tip #78–#80.

Implant site preservation:

PDL implant elevators in titanium-nitride, angled and bayonet, available as a set of seven.

Choosing the right elevators & periotome

The distinction that matters is lever versus wedge. A Cryer or Seldin is a lever: it takes purchase on bone and applies rotational force, which is fast but expends the buccal plate. A luxating elevator is a wedge — it is tapped and eased down the ligament space, and levering one hard is how blades get bent. If the site is going to receive an implant, the thin-bladed periotomes and PDL elevators are the ones that preserve the plate. Blade widths from 2mm to 5mm let you match the instrument to the root, not force the root to the instrument.