Importance of Waxing

[dds.girl21]

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I am a first year student who has just completed our waxing lab. I've improved significantly over the course of the semester, but I'm wondering if I should continue to practice on my own at home. I have the general understanding that the point of waxing is to help us develop fine hand skills, and the ability to learn and critically examine dental anatomy. But is waxing teeth a skill that is useful for anything else?

-Are there additonal classes in dental school where we are required to wax?
-Will waxing help me with restoration procedures in clinic?
-Will we ever need to be competent waxers for any aspect of clinic?

Any input will be appreciated!!

Edit: I'm interested in cosmetic dentistry, if that changes anything 🙂

 

[TanMan]

Waxing teeth on your own as a professional can be useful, but rarely in actual practice. Your time is worth more than waxing up teeth. That's why if you're really serious about a practice focused on cosmetic dentistry, you either have your own in-house lab tech/master ceramist or you have a local lab that will work with you.

- Waxup's and their applications depends on your school. Ask the upperclassmen if you have to wax in any other class. There might be some classes where you might have to waxup on a cast to create a stent for provisionalization.
- A lot of the questions you are asking is within the context of dental school; you'll need to know the policies and procedures that your school has to answer your questions
- Waxing will rarely ever help you in a real world restorative procedure. In my practice, if I needed an esthetic temporary, either my assistant will build it up and create a stent, or more often than not, I prefer to build the tooth up and carve it with my high speed.

If you're interested in cosmetic dentistry, waxing is an important skill to understand tooth and root anatomy. However, depending if you're planning to do a post-grad program in cosmetic dentistry, learning to do staining, stacking porcelain, dental photography, and so on.... will play a big role as well. This all depends on how serious you are about cosmetic dentistry.