This pair of crown removal instruments were of good quality and they stumped me at first. I'm used to making a cut on a crown with a highspeed across the occlusal and facial and then use a flat-bladed instrument to pry apart the crown. Often, you'll get half of it released and then you have to go back to making another slit to get the remainer off. This instrument uses a + shaped blade that had me a bit puzzled, and a lack of instructions didn't help. I finally went to making a cut across the occlusal, down the facial and then took the time to make a perpendicular cut on the facial to accommodate the + shape of the instrument. Putting the instrument into these cut lines not only puts force mesially and distally to pry the crown apart, it also exerts a torquing moment on it. Its not fool-proof, but I've had some good success with it. I'm still learning with it, and for the price, its nice to have in my armamentarium.
