Every nightmare about waxing.....
- Thread starter MnBr63
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you guys already started school??
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I was a HORRIBLE waxer. In fact, I came to dental school with very little in the way of dental fine hand skills (as I learned the hard way). It took a long time (pretty much all of first year), a lot of hard work, and quite a few frustrating afternoons at school to really start getting the hang of things. The good news, though, is that I *did* get it. You will too. It sounds trite, but it's true. For now, just keep plugging away. You'll end up just fine.
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Why do you have to wax? I'm going into 3rd year and we never had to wax anything for a grade except for denture rim.
some schools use it to teach d anatomy and develop hand skills.
at UIC they said we will not be required to do any of our lab work...
do you think that means we won't have to wax? I understand that when we get to clinic we won't be actually fabricating our crowns, bridges, and dentures, however I don't know about pre-clinical.
anyone have an idea?
do you think that means we won't have to wax? I understand that when we get to clinic we won't be actually fabricating our crowns, bridges, and dentures, however I don't know about pre-clinical.
anyone have an idea?
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We learn how to wax as one of the first exercises we do. We have to wax up a number of our own crown and use it to help us learn occlusion. When treating complex cases where major changes to a persons occlusion are made we will do diagnostic wax up. Waxing is a good skill to have IMO.
Try and spend more time on your projects. In the beginning you need to spend way more than 15 minutes on waxing to get an A. We were given 2 hours for each waxing practical, and to make the wax-up perfect and score an A we took the entire 2 hours.
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Right now I have burns from my wax spatula on my forarm because I had to reset a whole mess of teeth in clinic before my patient showed up. My favorite wax injury is when your using the sticky wax, and it runs down and burns your fingers. Although my waxing skills have increased drastically from what they were 6 months ago, I still hate the stuff(want to use stronger word). If I have to look at another piece of hard baseplate wax again I will vomit. On the brighter site in two weeks someone will be walking around with a set of dentures I made, pretty cool.
You do plenty of wax work here. It only really sucks for the occlusion course when you are trying to get perfect tripod contacts on waxed crowns that shrink in size every night because the wax is garbage.
You don't do any full tooth wax-ups though, all the dentition anatomy waxing is meant to simulate filling actual preparations (ie. replace a 'fractured' portion on #8).
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If it makes you feel any better, I once spent about 20 hours waxing up #14 and when I handed it in my professor said "well, it looks kind of like a tooth....."
He gave me a B- on it but only after we had a really, really good laugh about it.
Hope that makes you feel better..but as with all things in dental school, it takes time.
He gave me a B- on it but only after we had a really, really good laugh about it.
Hope that makes you feel better..but as with all things in dental school, it takes time.
So, you're saying that the OP should spend more than 15 hours waxing 2 teeth?? LOL.
-Hup!
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Hey Guys -- Waxing is one of those silly time honored rites of passage in dental school. Just give it your best shot and move on.
I do have to share a story here......
In my class we had one student that had not only been a lab tech. prior to dental school but he had been the teacher of dental lab science at a regional technical school. Guess What --- he got a C on his first waxing.
We had another guy that was machinist for an aircraft company prior to dental school. This guy carved the whole wax thing with his pocket knife. Guess who got the A.
Morel of the story --- Don't worry about it.
I do have to share a story here......
In my class we had one student that had not only been a lab tech. prior to dental school but he had been the teacher of dental lab science at a regional technical school. Guess What --- he got a C on his first waxing.
We had another guy that was machinist for an aircraft company prior to dental school. This guy carved the whole wax thing with his pocket knife. Guess who got the A.
Morel of the story --- Don't worry about it.
I said 15 HOURS and some of that included saturday time. We wax the entire crown of a tooth from a peg not just places to simulate fillings. I have a practical on monday coming up and we have 4 hours to complete a #8 from a peg. Our grading system is A,B,C, Fail. You are said to be a "great waxer" if you get a C, "Excellent Waxer" for a B, and "Teaching this course" for an A. We are to be happy if we pass.
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What about people who are merely "good" at waxing? Do they all fail?
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Get ready for four years of the same. Too much stress for grades this early on may affect your mental health. I agree with everyone else that tooth waxing is the first step of a long process. You'll get better with practice, time, and help from classmates/professors.
I didn't read through all of the posts to see what was written, but I was a terrible waxer in dental school. I'm sure you can do a search for some of my posts from 4 years ago and read about the miserable experiences I had.
I had buddies who spent 1/5 the time and turned in masterpieces, mine looked shabby and were really quite embarrassing. That was really a tough part of school for me.
I had buddies who spent 1/5 the time and turned in masterpieces, mine looked shabby and were really quite embarrassing. That was really a tough part of school for me.
Thanks for the moral support guys. We just got back our first grades. Most people got low C's or didn't pass...(especially those who were gunning for A's.) I was shooting to pass and got a B- and a B.
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I remember in dental school lab we sat in rows and my friend next to me was kidding saying that the wax up is so nice the professor is going to stick it in her mouth. Well, she was standing right behind us and she ended up failing him for a perfectly good waxup. It was pretty funny looking back at it now.
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Waxing truly was the death of me. We would wax up the entire tooth (both root and crown) from a large rectangular block of wax. In the beginning, it took me sometimes over 20 hours to wax up a good tooth. There was even a day when I went into the bathroom and cried because it just got to be too much. But truthfully, I have found that to be way more difficult than anything I have done so far in operative, occulusion, or any other class. Sounds like you are off to a good start. Keep up the motivation and you'll do fine. Waxing is just one of those pain in the butt things that are part of the process! Good luck to you!
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hey can anyone find some good videos of waxing technique on the internet?
I am searching but not finding any. I am curious to actually watch a wax up.
I am searching but not finding any. I am curious to actually watch a wax up.
Are you serious? I can think of an infinite number of things that I would rather watch. Even women's basketball!
-Hup!
i guess i'm odd. getting accepted to dental school has been my main goal for the last 4 years. I have become obsessed with it. I guess i just want to have as much knowledge as I can before I begin in a few weeks.
As of right now I don't fully understand what people mean when they say wax up. I get the impression that it is different than the denture wax ups we saw when I was an assistant.
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if you can pick up some yeti wax, use it. it helps you carve, and mold the proper anatomy a lot easier than other wax that you may have. remember that not all waxes are created equal. you'll learn that in Dental Materials.
The first few months of waxing will be a pain in the arse. but after words it should take you no longer than 2 hrs to wax up a full crown. but if you become a lab tech it will only take 15 min to wax it up.
The first few months of waxing will be a pain in the arse. but after words it should take you no longer than 2 hrs to wax up a full crown. but if you become a lab tech it will only take 15 min to wax it up.
Lier! You did well! You got 2 solid Bs!
Waxing is supposed to be the hardest class freshmen year in Louisville because the instructor has a pretty tough grading scale. 77% is C-, 86% is B- and 93% is A-. MnBR63 probably got 90% or something like that, which is actually freaking awesome.
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I never found waxing to be all that difficult. Pharmacology was my crutch😎
Suprisingly in a few years you will be able to wax up 2-15 in a few hours.
Suprisingly in a few years you will be able to wax up 2-15 in a few hours.
i can't believe you have started school and even received grades on an assignment already! i'm still waking up at 12pm, sitting on my butt, going to the gym everyday, and staying up till 3am....being a bum! but northeast schools are notorious for starting later than other schools around the nation. not looking forward to waxing, i will report back with my nightmares in about 2 months. haha
For real! My D-day still is 5 weeks away. I mean, I'm not dying to get school started but it's crazy that LU (and other schools?) is already going at it.
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Waxing can be relaxing "relative" to the other crap we have to deal with. It can be far from relaxing when you under reduce, and your lingual cusp breaks off minutes before you have to turn it in.😛
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To me waxing was the like the hazing rituals you had to go through to get into a fraternity or sorority!! I am still not that great at waxing and I am now a D3, but I sure know how to do it in a fraction of the time. Gotta see the silver lining, no?
started waxing a #30 today. in the last 15 minutes I had 2 cusps break completely off. Its not due until monday but it looks like I'll be heading in for a saturday waxing.
I would much rather spend the Saturday waxing than studying for heinous finals! Next week is gonna be rough, but it also means that semester 1 of 3 is over for DS2 year!
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Actually, in a few years, they'll be able to take an impression and send it to the lab in about 10 minutes. 😀
ha...then i'll see you in the lab on saturday...then go study for the DA test on Tuesday....and then for Fridays Gross Test, Gross Practical, and DA Practical.
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Get some practice under your belt, and waxing will soon become something you mindlessly do in front of a movie at home with a cold beer.
F***! My f****** molar cracked in half in lab today! WTH!!!!!
I had no choice but to take the whole thing home today. Looks like it's going to be a very, very long night.
I need a beer. No, more like a case of beer.
***
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Surviving DA Lab at ULSD is easy:
1. Bring lube
2. Take your C
3. Forget it ever happened
I love it when a new class comes in that thinks the first summer semester is rough. Prepare yourself.
1. Bring lube
2. Take your C
3. Forget it ever happened
I love it when a new class comes in that thinks the first summer semester is rough. Prepare yourself.
It's that hard.
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To you, sir, I raise my Killian's in salute. Good luck getting it finished.
Right now, I just suck working with wax in general. The stuff is either dripping on me or too hard to mold. Border molding, tooth carving, impression boxing. I've gotta get a grip on this wax stuff.
