This is how I do it:
1. Place sticky wax all over the typodont tooth thet you will be waxing on, a nice thin layer.
2. Place your sticky waxed tooth into the typodont and get a visual of the mesial and distal contacts. In fact…if you want, heat your pkt get some wax on it and place it on the tooth where the contact will eventually be. That way you know where to place wax.
3. Pull your tooth out and add some wax to build up the contacts and marginal ridges.
4. After making them contact nice, build up the sides of the tooth. Build up the buccal and lingual and make them nice and proportionate.
5. Then place the tooth back in the typodont (you should be doing it often to make sure you are adding to the right places) and look at the cusps on the opposing teeth. Draw an imaginary line connecting all of these cusp tips. Your tips should fall on this line. Drip a little wax onto this line while it is in the typodont. Then take it out and add wax until they are nice and round. Next comes the carving.
6. We get to have the tooth we are waxing, our typodont and the tooth that would normally go in its place as a model. i hold up both teeth (my typodont real tooth and the wax up) and view their silhouettes. If I see anything differ from the typodont tooth on my wax up, i carve or add wax. I work one side at a time. Look at the mesial, then distal, then buccal then lingual.
Then I look at it from the occlusal. I check my embrasures, contacts, contours, etc.
7. Lastly I work on the occlusal surface. Place that wax up in the typodont and put the teeth together. Where ever there is contact i shave it away. I use my fine tipped pkt to draw general lines of anatomy in the tooth and then carve away with some other instrument.
8. I carve with a thin layer of vaseline on my instruments. Makes it easier. I shine with some vaseline and a paper towel folded up into a fine point. Soap works too, nose grease (but GROSS!), anything hydrophobic (same properties as wax) will shine it up.
9. Keep checking occlusion, canine guidance, etc.
ABOVE ALL: Keep practicing and remember that it is JUST WAX! The things you should really get good at are the composite and amalgam. From EVERY upperclassman I have EVER talked to they have all said that working in the mouth is easier than working on plastic typodont teeth. Keep that in mind.
Sorry Cory! He was a good sport about it.
