Bite Material

The bite registration is integral to setting up the teeth digitally. The ideal registration will be horseshoe shape and will incorporate 3 mm of the buccal / lingual tooth morphology to guide the software tooth setting / registration

Wax bite:

A high-quality wax bite assists in aligning the upper and lower dental models in the DigiModel software. The wax bite should incorporate as many teeth / molars as possible, including the front teeth where possible.

Ensure that the wax is sufficiently softened in a water bath to prevent deflective closure of the mandible. Guide the patient into either centric occlusion or centric relation according to requirement. Please make sure that the patient bites through the wax into occlusal contact. Wax Bite (.pdf 623KB). To minimise the risk of the wax bite deforming when removed from the patient's mouth, ensure that the wax has been sufficiently cooled before removal. Do not over trim the bite as indexing the digital models requires as much detail as possible.

Ask the patient to carefully bite a second time to ensure that the impression has not been distorted.

As long as the final bite is hard, most types of wax bite material can be used. Please do NOT use "Bite and Boxing Wax" by Lordella. For some reason this material is incompatable with the scanner.

PVS may be used to take a bite registration as long as it is sufficiently rigid when it has set so as not to slump. If the material is not rigid, it will slump whilst being scanned and produce a distorted image making accurate bite setting very difficult or even impossible. The same clinical criteria as above apply.

Resource:

• Kerr Red Wax
• TeePee Ortho Wax