Dental explorer. A hand-held manual dental instrument designed for tactile examination (i.e., exploration) in the oral cavity, on the tooth surface and/or gums, mainly to find indentations (e.g., pits, fissures) for the determination of early tooth decay on the crown of teeth; it is also used in periodontology (e.g., to locate subgingival deposits before scaling). It is a long, slender instrument (a manual probe) with a stem that terminates in a thin working part at the distal end which may be needle-like, hooked, or blunt according to the intended use. This is a reusable device.