A teaching technique for dental surveying to accurately orient multiple casts to a pre-determined path of insertion

Beaumont & Smith, Author Details

This article describes a teaching technique for dental surveying that allows multiple students to accurately and quickly orient casts to a pre-determined path of insertion.

Teaching the practical aspects of introductory dental surveying to multiple students simultaneously presents several challenges.  One of these challenges is to enable all of the students to duplicate the position of a dental cast to a pre-determined path of insertion, assuring that they are presented with the same initial relationships of guide planes to the heights of contour for retention and reciprocation.

The dental cast to be used is prepared beforehand by making widely spaced tripod marks on the lingual or palatal surfaces in a standard fashion1.  Multiple templates may be made quickly with clear vacuform materials (Sof-Tray Sheets 5Óx 5Ó 0.9mm Ultradent, South Jordan, UT).

Figure 1.  Note the outline of a vacuform template trimmed to cover teeth and tissues.

Once trimmed, the template is replaced on the cast, and scribed directly over the pre-existing tripod marks

Figure 2.  The template is scribed over the pre-existing tripod marks.

 

 

The template may then be removed from the cast and perforated at each of the three scribe marks.  A small round bur works nicely for this purpose.At the beginning of the dental survey exercise, students are instructed to position the template on their unsurveyed dental casts, and to place a small pencil mark onto the cast through each of the three perforations.

Figure 3.  The student uses the perforations to make tripod marks on the cast so that it may be oriented to the original path of insertion.

 

The resulting tripod marks allow the student to orient the cast to the dental surveyor with the same path of insertion as that of the original dental cast.

References

1.      Phoenix RD, Cagna DR, DeFreest CF. Stewart's Clinical Removable Partial Prosthodontics. 3rd ed. Chicago: Quintessence Publishing Co Inc; 2003. p. 231.

 

Author Details

Arthur John Beaumont, Jr., MS, DDSProfessor of ProsthodonticsDepartment of Restorative DentistryWest Virginia University School of DentistryMorgantown, West Virginia 26506-9495

Norton P. Smith, DDS, MAProfessor of ProsthodonticsDepartment of Restorative DentistryWest Virginia University School of DentistryMorgantown, West Virginia 26506-9495

Contact: Arthur John Beaumont, Jr. MS, DDSDepartment of Restorative DentistryWest Virginia University School of DentistryRobert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center North PO Box 9495Morgantown, West Virginia 26506-9495304-293-2612 (Voice)304-293-2859 (Fax)

JBeaumont@hsc.wvu.edu

Click on these buttons to visit our journalsSearch for Papers and Articles
Return to Psychiatry On-LineReturn to Dentistry On-LineReturn to Vet On-LineReturn to GP On-LineLink to Pharmacy on-LineReturn to Anaesthesia On-LineReturn to Medicine On-LineReturn to Family Medical Practice On-Line
Psychiatry
On-Line		Dentistry
On-Line		Vet
On-Line		Chest Medicine
On-Line		GP
On-Line		Pharmacy
On-Line		Anaesthesia
On-Line		Medicine
On-Line		Family Medical
Practice On-Line

All pages copyright ©Priory Lodge Education Ltd 1994-2005.

First Published January 2005