Dental hygiene and periodontal hand instrumentation requires alignment of the cutting surface of the instrument at a specific angle and adaptation to the tooth surface. A dental hygiene and periodontal hand instrumentation tutor provides an objective, consistent and accurate way to measure and display the actual angulation and adaptation angles of a periodontal hand instrument and assess instrument use continuously. The method includes detecting the position, orientation, motion path, pressure, angulation angle, adaptation angle, and centerline angle of a periodontal hand instrument and comparing them to ideal positions, orientations, and motion paths; and provides various forms of user feedback.