Dental tech class?

[abathingape]

---

Members don't see this ad.

do you guys have dental tech classes at your school?
seriously, i think dental tech classes are a torture!

for example, we have to go through the whole lab procedure of making RPDs, crowns, and orthodontic appliances (eg. space maintainers). i wasted so much time just bending those wires for ortho appliances...ended up kinda crappy-looking anyways. i think it's quite pointless to have these dental tech classes because we're not going to be doing these things when we come out and practice right?

 

[dheav005]

do you not think it is important to know what all goes into making the all those fancy things you are planning on sticking into someone's mouth?

i suppose if everything came back from the lab perfect every time, then you wouldnt need to be able to troubleshoot or communicate with the tech about their work. i have yet to see that be the case.

 

[LazurasDC]

All of our classes have the lab work incorporated into it. Ie. We've waxed and casted several crowns and bridges this year, fired porcelain, bent ortho wires in every shape imaginable (very lame i agree), don't actually fabricate our own RPD metal framework, but making record bases,wax rims, setting teeth etc. for removable.

I think it's cool in some ways. For example, I feel like I have an idea on how to prep a crown better as far as fabricating a restoration that will fit and be in proper occlusion and not be too thin or have sub-par margins, etc.

 

[teeth63a]

do you guys have dental tech classes at your school?
seriously, i think dental tech classes are a torture!

for example, we have to go through the whole lab procedure of making RPDs, crowns, and orthodontic appliances (eg. space maintainers). i wasted so much time just bending those wires for ortho appliances...ended up kinda crappy-looking anyways. i think it's quite pointless to have these dental tech classes because we're not going to be doing these things when we come out and practice right?

When you get good at it, making a space maintainer takes all of 5-15 minutes, depending if you're soldering or crimping. It sure beats paying a lab to do the same thing.

 

[southomfs]

At Baylor we're reuired to do full denture wax ups for every pt we see, cast every gold unit, and pindex everything sent to the lab. Think it sucks to do it in preclinical lab? Try doing it for every pt. I bet between pts and preclinical, I've cast 60 units of gold.

 

[Turnerjo13]

We have to cast a lot of crowns, inlays and onlays in preclinic. In clinic we have to cast some of our crowns and others can be sent to the lab. For the ones that are sent to the lab we sill have do all of the model work and trimming of the dies. I think that it is good to have to do your own model work while in school. It makes you take a good look at your preps under a microscope each time which is a learning experience. We also have to do some of our own denture work but not not all of it.