Can I add a button to the right of the default 'Search' box?

I would like to add a button (actually two) to the right of the datatables Search box. One button would be to 'clear' the search filter, the other is specific to my application (to toggle some rows to display/not display).
Is there an easy way to do this?
Or, should I just create an external search box, and the buttons, as shown in this post:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5990386/datatables-search-box-outside-datatable

-bigsipper