A handheld dental instrument includes a casing provided with a holding portion to be held by a user, a reception unit provided on the casing to receive an operation from the user, and a control unit that controls a control target to perform a predetermined action in response to the operation received by the reception unit. The control unit performs a first control when the operation received by the reception unit from the user is a first operation, and performs a second control different from the first control when the operation received by the reception unit from the user is a second operation different from the first operation.
