Week 7 Day 4: Nesting, Milling, Coloring, Sintering and Wax-up(2)

I worked on milling the crown I designed yesterday. I opened the ‘STL file’ created with Exocad in the Millbox program and began with the nesting process. Once I positioned the zirconia crown correctly, I generated an NC file and transferred it to the milling machine for fabrication. During this process, I realized there were some steps I had forgotten since the last time. I took the opportunity to refresh my memory on how to operate the machine and its functions before proceeding with the milling.

Me, in front of the milling machine

After finishing the milling, I proceeded with basic coloring. I applied a touch of blue, gray, and green pigment for the enamel, along with a hint of orange A1 pigment for the dentin.

I also took a look at the crowns made by other people in the class

With the basic coloring finished, the crown was dried and sintered. Next Monday, I’ll be fitting it to ensure a proper match with the prepped tooth, and I’ll also perform real coloring to closely match the crown with the tooth color.

I worked on waxing up teeth in between other tasks. In total, I completed 14 out of 28 teeth, covering at least one incisor, canine, premolar, and molar.

Now, I’m focusing on preparing and waxing up my own tooth models. However, I’m mindful that preparing teeth might risk damaging the waxed-up ones I’ve already completed. It’s daunting, but with careful attention, it’s manageable. Today, I dedicated almost four hours to the task and successfully prepped and waxed up tooth #26. It’s much simpler when adjacent teeth are normal, but waxing up next to already waxed adjacent teeth presents challenges. Nevertheless, I’m determined to continue studying tooth shapes through waxing up for the rest of the course.