Educational material of dental anatomy applied to study the morphology of permanent teeth

Abstract

The purpose of this report is to present educational material that would allow the dental student to learn to easily identify the morphologic characteristics of permanent teeth, and how they fit together (occlusion). In order to do this, macro models of permanent teeth with no attrition were carved in wax and later molded with alginate. These molds were filled with plaster, dental stone and/or cold-cured acrylic resin. The large individual dental stone tooth models were mounted on a wax base, thus obtaining maxillary and mandibular arches which were occluded. These dental arches were molded with plaster or dental stone. The authors suggest that these types of macro models allow an excellent visualization of the morphologic characteristics of permanent teeth and occlusion. Dental students are able to carve the permanent dentition in wax with great facility when they can observe macro models.