What happens after you leave the dentist's office

If you had told me back in university--or even a few months ago--that I'd end up being a a dental lab technician one day, I'd think you were nuts. But here I am, and I really really enjoy it!
So in a nutshell, the dentist takes an impression (they come in all kinds of different colours, which is nice) and that's what I work from. I pour a model of the entire impression, and usually also pour a little model of just the tooth or teeth that are being worked on, say for a crown. The teeth in question are in a contrasting colour (here, orange).



Once the stone has hardened, I pop it out of the impression, trim it and articulate it. Sounds fancy, but really it's just using a different stone to mount the models onto a sort of metal jaw--the articulator.



A lot of dentists use standard trays to hold the impression, but some like to have custom trays made to fit the patient more accurately. These are made using wax and a special kind of acrylic, shaped onto a model of the patient's teeth.




Then cooked up in a special gizmo.



These teeth floating in orange goo look a little like something from The Island of Dr. Moreau, but it's actually quite innocent. Occasionally a dentist will ask to have a duplicate of an existing model made, as a back up to the original. The model is suspended in a container where it can be surrounded by the duplicate material, which solidifies to form a mold of the patient's teeth. Then the model is removed and stone is poured into the mold to create the duplicate.




I hope you're all having a nice weekend, and that you're getting through the drearyness of winter.