Described is a molded gauge used for both manual and automated inspection of the length of at least one ultrasonic scaler tip.

A system and method for forming a sterile dental pack is disclosed. The method includes preparing a first wrap and a second wrap; arranging a plurality of dental disposable supplies on the first wrap; and wrapping the plurality of dental disposable supplies within the first wrap and the second wrap to form an airtight container. Also disclosed is a sterile dental pack dispensing system. The sterile dental pack dispensing system may include a storage container with an opening, the storage container being configured to store a wrapped sterile dental pack; an output configured to receive the wrapped sterile dental pack from the storage container; and a fiber optic indicator configured to cause the wrapped sterile dental pack to move from the storage container to the output through the opening.

Embodiments of the present invention provide devices (tags with sensors), systems, and methods to determine states (such as, but not limited to, complex impedance) of materials-of-interest, such as tissue-of-interest, implants, and construction members, to name a few, in a non-invasive and contactless way; and using comparatively safe and/or low energy electromagnetic radiation, such as radio waves. Negligible-sized wireless-tags with sensors are implanted in such materials-of-interest. Using wireless communication and imaging technology, the states of the materials-of-interest may be monitored; which may allow non-invasive and contactless detection of problems such as cracking, bending, excessive pressure, improper temperature, and/or the like. Additionally, initially unknown locations of the implanted negligible-sized wireless-tags with sensors may be readily determined upon a given scanning (reading) session; and thus mapped to provide an effective image of the material-of-interest.

A method and device for quantifying a wear level of a bristle field of a brush are disclosed comprising a plurality of bristle tufts grouping each a plurality of single bristles, said bristle tufts being distributed over the bristle field, the method comprising the steps of recording and storing an image of the bristle field; converting the image into a gray scale image by use of digital image processing and storing the gray scale image; converting the gray scale image to at least one binarized image with only two tone values by use of digital image processing, thereby assigning one tone value to bristles and/or bristle tufts visible in the image and the other tone value to the background in the image not showing bristles or bristle tufts, and storing the binarized image.

Apparatuses, including sleeves, intraoral scanning systems to use these sleeves, and methods of using the sleeve, that authenticate the sleeve for use with an intraoral scanning system. Authentication may include verifying that the sleeve is new (unused) and/or verifying that the sleeve is appropriate and/or intended for use with the intraoral scanning system. Once authenticated, operation parameters of the intraoral scanning system can be automatically set based on information from a scanned identifier on the sleeve.

An apparatus for recommending whether to discard a dental file during use includes a processor, a plurality of laser profilometers oriented to direct their respective laser beams toward a first spatial region where a dental file is configured to travel along, a plurality of cameras oriented toward a second spatial region where the dental file is configured to travel along, at least one selected from the group consisting of a display screen and a speaker, and a non-transitory, tangible program storage medium, embodying a program of instructions executable by the processor to perform method steps for determining to discard the dental file. The method includes inserting the file in the apparatus to inspect the file with the cameras and the laser profilometers when the file is new and subsequently when the file has been used to determine whether the file should be discarded.