Waxing for Dental Students

Rowinda Abdalla

• Publisher: Quintessence Publishing Co, Inc
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780867157741
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicina
• Subtopic: Odontotecnica

When dental students are first taught how to wax teeth, they need clear instructions with logical steps and plenty of illustrations. With the omission of any distracting information about dies, crowns, bridges, and occlusion, this concise book is squarely directed to first-year dental students and can be used as a primary laboratory manual. The author covers the basics of wax instrumentation and addition, but the bulk of the book details the steps for waxing incisors, canines, premolars, and molars. Each chapter includes an introductory waxing exercise for the tooth type, followed by the key points of morphology for the tooth in question. Photographs detail the waxing steps for both a maxillary and a mandibular full crown on a tooth peg and show how the wax-up should mimic the contralateral tooth in terms of dimension, embrasures, heights of contour, line angles, and point angles. The logical and straightforward protocols in this book will help dental students quickly improve their waxing skills and reach expected goals.

chapter 1

Introduction to Waxing

Purpose of Waxing Teeth

Waxing teeth is mainly done by laboratory technicians to fabricate indirect restorations using the lost wax technique. When anterior restorations are planned, waxing can also be done by the dentist to achieve the best possible outcome; it can as well be an effective patient communication tool. For students, the main purpose for waxing teeth is to learn the morphology and anatomy of each individual tooth, so you are able to eventually restore teeth to the correct form.

Each tooth in the dental arch has five surfaces. Those surfaces are not flat: Every surface has convexities and concavities that are unique to its location and tooth type. Anatomical landmarks should be duplicated precisely when teeth are restored so that good esthetics and function can be achieved. Waxing is a great exercise to learn how to duplicate the correct tooth contours. In addition, the process of waxing familiarizes dental students with hand instrumentation techniques and allows them to develop skills such as finger dexterity, hand steadiness, aiming, and reaction time. These skills are essential for the high precision needed in dentistry.

Waxing Armamentarium

• Bunsen burner and tubing

• Waxing instruments: PKT1, PKT2, waxing spatula, PKT3, PKT4 (ie, Hollenback carver), and two discoid-cleoid carvers (large and small)

• Casting wax: Renfert GEO Classic mint-opaque modeling wax (75 gm)

• Dental Typodont Model D85SDP-200 (Kilgore International) with 28 teeth and soft gingiva

• Screwdriver

• Kilgore model teeth (anatomical replica)

• Kilgore A21AN-200 Series Prep Teeth

– Facial no. 10 UL29D

– Facial incisal labial lingual no. 7 UR24

– Full crown no. 23 LL21A

– Full crown no. 9 UL11C

– Full crown no. 11 UL31D

– Facial, occlusal, mesial no. 12 UL49H

– Full crown no. 12 UL42B

– Full crown no. 29 LR52E

– Occlusal, mesial, distal, lingual no. 3 UR66C

– Full crown no. 19 LL62D

• Nylon stockings

• Pencil

• Ultrafine-point black marker

• Eye shields

Setup of the Workstation

The nature of the precision and efficiency of clinical and laboratory work in dentistry mandates organization of the work area. The use of instrument setups and the availability of needed items will expedite your work and facilitate the learning process. It is expected that you will work from an organized and properly supplied work station (Fig 1-1).

Fig 1-1

Waxing instruments

Waxing instruments are divided into wax-addition and wax-carving categories^1,2 (Figs 1-2 and 1-3).

Wax-addition instruments

PKT1. Used to apply wax (Fig 1-2a). The tips are round, curved, and tapered and the shank can be safely heated.

Fig 1-2a

PKT2. Also used to apply wax and featuring a pointed tip that can be used to fill in voids or discrepancies between the crest of cusp ridges and the facial and lingual axial contours and on the occlusal surface (Fig 1-2b).

Fig 1-2b

Waxing spatula. Used to add a large amount of wax in the initial step of waxing or when waxing posterior teeth (Fig 1-2c). It can also be heated and applied to smooth a large surface.

Fig 1-2c

Wax-carving instruments

These instruments are used to carve the wax after it cools. They are not meant to be heated.

PKT3. Features a pointed burnisher and is used to perfect and enhance supplemental and developmental grooves (Fig 1-3a).

Fig 1-...