Thursday, 16 May 2013
I haven’t done a dental post in a while {jeez} so I wanted to share with you some of the things that I’ve been working on!
1 // An all-ceramic crown. I milled this crown from a small porcelain block using CAD/CAM (Computer-Aided Design, Computer-Aided Manufacturing). I prepared the tooth, scanned it using a special camera, designed the crown on my laptop, and a machine milled the exact design. I then stained and glazed the freshly-milled crown to make it look more natural. This technology is very exciting!
2 // A temporary bridge. We were instructed to “replace #13” which is the upper left second premolar. I prepared the two adjacent teeth and then fabricated a temporary bridge. I was quite pleased with the results. Bridges {aka fixed partial dentures} take a lot of work!
3 // My first denture! We spent weeks preparing this case; we set teeth, created the base out of wax, and then sent it to the lab! We just got our cases back and we had to trim and polish our finished work. Shiny eh?
4 // A cosmetic wax design for the upper incisors. I took impressions of a classmate, mounted her upper and lower casts, and designed a veneer out of white wax on the casts. Usually, a dentist would use this wax-up cosmetic design to do fabricate either direct composite veneers or milled veneers from a lab. She was happy with how it turned out.
Dental school is very exciting right now. I am doing a lot more complicated dental work in the simulation lab and I am preparing to transition into the clinic floor full-time. I see my first {real} patient tomorrow for an oral exam and a cleaning. I am nervous-excited! Wish me luck!