In case you've never had the pleasure of having an impression made of your teeth, allow me to explain how it goes. The dentist/assistant/hygienist (or, in my case, the dental student) puts a big wad of gooey stuff (technical term) in a big tray, then sticks the big tray in your mouth. You, the patient, are supposed to be still for about a minute while the gooey stuff runs down your throat and hardens around your teeth. Due to the whole "running down your throat" part, many people gag or even vomit when having an impression made, but usually a well-trained heath care worker can minimize the trauma of the experience.
Unfortunately, we first year students are not well-trained heath care professionals quite yet, so there was a whole lotta shakin' (gagging) goin' on today in the clinic as we practiced on each other. Besides the choking hazards, many of us ended up with the gooey stuff on various body parts besides the oral cavity, including (but not limited to) the hair, the eyes, the forehead, the nose, the nasal cavity, and underneath the chin.
After the impressions are made, there are various other boring dentist things to be done to make the casts, but I won't bore you with the details. I will bore you with some pictures, though.
Everyone poses when they mix up the casting material--it's required:
Me with my articulator (and yes, the teeth on the right are supposed to be green--I didn't mess up!):
Making teeth out of wax:
The rest of the day was spent laughing about the mistakes we made and periodically grooming pieces of goo off each other like a big family of monkeys. Fun day!
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