I can't carve teeth:(

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dinesh

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  1. Dentist
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had my first tooth carving class today.
Tooth 2:1....maxillary incisor.

Gosh I have to say I SUCK.
The wax broke twice, even after resticking, and my it came out aweful.
 
yeah, carving sucks. You just gotta be patient and take your time. I used the half-Hollenback probably 75% of the time and just took off tiny flakes at a time.
 
I really feel sucky now.
Peoples ones actually came out like real teeth!
Mines looking like a block with a peice broken off 🙁
 
carving teeth has nothing to do with your future as a dentist, a monkey could be trained to be a dentist. Dentistry is a trained, learned skill. Some people may pick it up faster or have better hands, but your patient won't know if you miraculously carved a cusp of carabelli into that amalgam you just did.
 
dinesh said:
had my first tooth carving class today.
Tooth 2:1....maxillary incisor.

Gosh I have to say I SUCK.
The wax broke twice, even after resticking, and my it came out aweful.
Does your school use that numbering system?
 
Don't worry! Mine looked awful in the beginning too. It took me quite a while to get going and to get that wax looking like a tooth. It used to upset me too because I felt like I needed so much more work than other students. But, you know what? It all evens out after a while! Just keep practicing and be patient with yourself.

dinesh said:
had my first tooth carving class today.
Tooth 2:1....maxillary incisor.

Gosh I have to say I SUCK.
The wax broke twice, even after resticking, and my it came out aweful.
 
i am sucking right with you right now..
 
you'll suck the first few teeth, then you get awesome. i got better with each tooth i did. just keep at it.

the tricky part is learning which are the best tools to use and when the right time to use them is. just use trial and error and you'll start using your fav/most effective tools. 🙂
 
don't sweat it. The first one is always the hardest. Just make sure you work on the crown first and the root tip last, so you don't accidentally crack off the tip and fail.

the hardest part for me was actually carving down the cingulum and the marginal ridges - I had been carving from each of the 4 basic sides and gotten a blocky thing, and it took me a while to figure out exactly what i needed to do to get the proper slope and angles.

You'll get better as you carve more teeth, and by the time you do wax-ups you'll have enough experience to be able to adjust your embrasures, and carve all the fine details.

I liked using the half hollenbeck, tanner carver, and to some extent the discoid cleoid.

Oh, and polish that mofo like your life depended on it. Dental instructors are like raccoons. They really like shiny things.

heh heh.
 
If you're working off a model tooth (aka an oversized giant model) it helps if you take some clay or play doh and jam the model into the clay while you're working. Mounting it like that will give you a fixed point of reference so you're not constantly rolling the model around on the table, trying to get a good look at it for a few seconds before putting it down and going back to your carving. It helps more than you think.
 
dinesh said:
Mines looking like a block with a peice broken off 🙁

That about sums up mine. One of my classmates took a look at it and goes, "Ummm... yeah. You're probably better off just starting a new one." Doh. 🙁
 
awww. You guys it's just the beginning. I agree with the person who said it's all a monkey skill. If you do it enough you'll get better. You have to think of it as coloring in kindergarten. Some kids start of coloring in the lines some kids have scribble everywhere. Today I think you all are capable of coloring within the lines. Don't sweat it, just practice and ask different professors and upper classmen tips and it'll come to you. Good luck.
 
unlvdmd said:
Does your school use that numbering system?


I hate to break it to you - but the US is the only country using the 1 -32 numbering system. Canada and the rest of the world uses the international system.
 
Our dental school is going to teach us all the major numbering systems...USA included 🙂
 
DrRob said:
I hate to break it to you - but the US is the only country using the 1 -32 numbering system. Canada and the rest of the world uses the international system.
Yes, I know that... But I have never heard of a new student refer to that as opposed to the regular old 1-32 that we're used to. I was just curious if they are using that at his school.
 
They want us 'rounded' as alot of the graduates end up abroad anyhow...

I really am feeling horrible after that tooth carving class. The lab tech said I could always come check him for some help with it though..so I might do that.

First bump in the road...everything else is easy so far..anatomy, biochemistry, physio....and even Oral Biology..it's just this darn carving.
I have good dexterity..the problem is my eye of aesthetic is ****ty...I can't even draw good 😱
 
dinesh said:
Our dental school is going to teach us all the major numbering systems...USA included 🙂


Glad to hear that they are going to teach you the correct way and not just the way those weirdo Canucks do it. 😀
 
dinesh said:
had my first tooth carving class today.
Tooth 2:1....maxillary incisor.

Gosh I have to say I SUCK.
The wax broke twice, even after resticking, and my it came out aweful.
If it's any consolation, I can promise you that, if you're not already a better waxer than me, you almost certainly will be by the end of your course.

Fortunately, however, I can take an impression with the best of 'em, and the real world has these wonderful people called "lab techs"...
 
just use alginate on natural teeth then poor wax on the impression. hehehehehe.
 
Oh I remember the traumatic attempts at carving teeth. I would be so ashamed of my carving, I would either not show it at all,or show it every 2 mins and hope that they will do most of it for me.

I feel the FDI system is the best. You have the quadrants named 1 to 4 starting with the upper right and going clockwise. And you have the teeth 1-8 starting from central to third molar.

That works the best and is so easy to understand.
 
Just got it shaved down a bit, now to round off edges of root and get this thing looking more like a tooth than a rectangle with cuts.
 
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