What is a Curette?

@VivAnne - Hi there, welcome to our discussion! I can give you some advice on curettes and pottery here.

To answer your last question first, here, yes plastic is fine. A disposable curette will work great for pottery, and so long as you are careful not to break it, it can last through years of occasional use.

If you use the same curette every day and it is a disposable, there is a possibility it will eventually break, but since disposable curettes are sold in packs of multiples you ought to have a backup.

Now, about which curette types would work well as pottery tools. It really depends on which kind of pottery work you'll be doing with them; different curette tip shapes can provide really different effects as far as texturing and pattern work go.

I would start with dental curettes, which nowadays you can buy in small packages in pharmacies. I know that Rite Aid sells them. Other than dental curettes, you might try out universal curettes, which are designed to be used for several different curette applications. Those might be a bit harder to track down, though -- maybe try eBay.

Hope this helps you and your aunt out, and you are quite welcome.

Is any particular kind of curette superior to any other particular kind as far as which one would make a good pottery-sculpting tool? Since the tip sizes vary, as aishia said, I'd imagine there is probably more than one curette style that would work for pottery and clay projects, but I'm looking for which type would be a good one to try first.

Has anybody here actually tried using a curette for pottery instead of for medical uses? Are the disposable kind good enough? Since they don't need to be sterilized a lot like they do when used for medical stuff, the plastic would probably last okay for pottery work, right?

Thanks for any help you can give me -- much appreciated! I'm going to tell my aunt about these curettes, she does pottery work and usually uses things like wooden skewer sticks to add detailing.

@gimbell - Likely the kind of curette used in your father's ear wax cleanings and the dental curette you find the dentist sticking into your mouth during your tooth cleanings are different designs.

The term "curette" refers to a small hand held tool, but the tip size, shape and style vary greatly depending on what the curette is going to be used for, so a dental curette and an ear wax cleaning type curette probably couldn't get mixed up even if somebody tried to confuse others by mixing them together in the same instrument storage place.

Studying curettes and other little medical tools is a hobby of mine, so I've seen photos of dozens of styles. One that sticks in my mind particularly well is a curette used for removing tumors known as the "Tumor Screw". It has a corkscrew-style spiral on the end instead of a little blade or piece of wire. Looks kind of scary, but if it helps the doctor treat the tumor, I suppose it's a good thing.

The name "curette" is kind of cute, and sounds a bit French. I wonder who named these instruments?

It's kind of gross to think about the fact that the same tool they use for ear wax cleanings like my dad goes in for every few years is also the type put into my mouth when I go to the dentist!

I know the curettes in the dentist's office have never been anywhere near somebody's ear, and vice versa for the ear curettes they use in dad's cleanings, but the thought of it is still strange. Mixing up your curettes sounds like something you might find on the tv show "Scrubs".