Dental Anatomy

Jeffrey Caso

12 years ago

One of the first classes that we all had in dental school was Dental Anatomy. Granted, we like to forget those days, but as horrible as they were, what we learned was very important. The real problem with learning Dental Anatomy so early in our schooling was that we learned so many things and really didn't know what was truly important to remember and what wasn't.

I remember my first operative procedure. I knew ahead of time that it was a class 1 amalgam on tooth number 14. I studied up on the anatomy and spent probably 30 minutes carving the amalgam. The instructor sat down to check it and asked for the largest spoon excavator that I had and a wet cotton pledget in a college plier. He immediately scooped out all of my painstakingly placed anatomy and smoothed everything down with the cotton pledget. He never explained why, and I soon realized that most amalgams looked the same way. It was a lesson that made no sense and there was no reason for it.

Fast forward 25 years, and we as CEREC dentists now wear an extra hat. We are dentists and also lab technicians. It is up to us to know our dental anatomy cold and be able to place it virtually and manually. Sure, we stare at teeth all day long, but mostly what we see is that terrible-looking scooped-out amalgam. We need to make sure that we are up on our anatomy for each and every tooth.

Recently I began to take a greater interest in placing very accurate primary anatomy. It makes our restorations look better and provides a home or our stains, which then makes them look great. Grab your old anatomy book and take a look. It doesn't matter how old the book is, dental anatomy is unchanged. You might be surprised at some of the things that now, as seasoned dentists you see. You are able to cut to the chase and see what is most important.

I plan to make it even easier for you to brush up on things. I think it is so very important that I am in the process of making a series of videos on dental anatomy. After a review, I will show you my technique to place and refine correct anatomy virtually. It adds less than a minute of design time and really makes our restorations look great.

As soon as I have the first ready, I will post it for you. It's not the most riveting subject, but one that is very important to our daily practice of dentistry.