23 Shepherd’s Hook Explorer

The Shepherd’s Hook Explorer #23 is reached for during routine restorative and hygiene exams whenever a clinician needs to check occlusal pits and fissures for caries or run the tip along a filling or crown margin to feel for a ledge, overhang, or open margin. It is the standard general-purpose explorer taught in dental and hygiene programs and is the tip most clinicians default to first during a visual and tactile exam.

The working end is a large, rounded hook rather than a fine wire tip, which gives it moderate tactile sensitivity and a shape that catches naturally on surface irregularities as it is drawn across a tooth. This makes it well suited to occlusal surfaces and accessible margins, though the same hook shape gives it less reach into tight subgingival pockets than a fine, angled tip.

Clinically, the #23 is used for caries detection on occlusal and buccal/lingual surfaces, checking restoration margins, and general charting during new patient and recall exams. SurgiWorld also stocks this same #23 hook combined with a second working end (TU17, DG16, or #6) on double-ended explorers for clinicians who want the #23 hook plus a second tip in one instrument. Single-ended, medical-grade stainless steel, corrosion resistant, fully autoclavable.

Product Features

• Shepherd’s Hook Explorer #23 detects pit and fissure caries with a large, rounded hook tip
• Moderate tactile sensitivity suited to occlusal and accessible buccal/lingual surfaces
• Catches naturally on marginal ledges, overhangs, and open restoration margins
• The standard general-purpose explorer pattern used in most hygiene and restorative exams
• Forms the base tip on SurgiWorld’s double-ended 23 combination explorers
• Single-ended design keeps the instrument compact and easy to control
• Medical-grade stainless steel, corrosion resistant, fully autoclavable