Summary of Dental Materials

Dental waxes primarily consist of two or more components which may either be natural or synthetic waxes, resins, oils, fats, and pigments. The appropriate blending of components is done to achieve desirable properties of the material for a specific application. In dentistry, waxes usually serve the purpose of wax pattern construction. They may however aid in other procedures as well e.g., at the bite registration stage of complete denture fabrication and to record impressions of edentulous areas.

Finally, there are three take-home messages from today’s course. First, there are four types of dental materials: Metals, Ceramics, Polymers, and Composites. Second, Dental materials can be classified by functions which are Preventive, Restorative, and Auxiliary Dental Materials. Last, each type of material has its pros and cons, to achieve better properties than a single component applied in dentistry, future materials must be combined and need to consider the biological properties of enamel and dentin.