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the--molar--bear · 4 years

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drawing the right maxillary central incisor

I had prepared everything I needed to draw the right maxillary central incisor. I watched Dr. Yniguez’s and Dr. Segarra’s drawing videos beforehand, I procured the dental model and the cross section paper, and I’ve stared at the model of the right maxillary central incisor for who knows how long. Yet, just as I was about to begin, I realized that I still did not know what to do.

I held the pencil in my hand, but I didn’t know which to mark first. I suppose that was the kind of cluelessness anyone can have when doing something for the first time.

Once I’ve moved past the initial feeling of being overwhelmed, I began to mark the center of the box. I then marked where the incisal edge of the crown would be and began marking out all of the points for the x3 measurements of tooth 11. From there, I followed along the video guides and the next thing I knew, I was finished with the labial aspect of the tooth, and eventually finished drawing all of the aspects. It was certainly not a smooth and easy process.

One of the first challenges I encountered was that counting the boxes on the cross section paper had me cross-eyed and dizzy. It was quite similar to when I first started measuring teeth using the boley gauge. I kept miscounting or losing count of the boxes. So I decided to use a ruler to be my guide for the alignment.

The next challenge was making sure that the features of the tooth such as the proximo-incisal edges and the contours were similar to the tooth model. It was somehow difficult to keep looking back and forth between the model and the drawing. In addition to that, to make sure that I was imitating the features of the model correctly, I needed to be able to look at the model at the proper angle which is it’s orientation when the tooth is inside the mouth, except for the incisal aspect.

One of the techniques that definitely helped the process was mentioned by Dr. Segarra, and it was drawing the outline of the thirds on the tooth model itself, and finding the thirds on the grid of the paper. That method made it somehow easier for me to tell roughly where a certain convexity or concavity would be.

11 with markings for the thirds

It needs to be said that it definitely felt amazing to have finished drawing tooth 11! I tried really hard to make it look like the tooth model I had been holding but I knew it was far from perfect. I didn’t expect it to look perfect on my first try, anyway. Nevertheless, I felt accomplished even though it took me a little over an hour to finish 5 aspects of one tooth. Overall, I think that, just like measuring teeth, drawing teeth would take some getting used to and the only way to get better at appreciating the external morphology of the tooth and putting it on paper is to keep practicing.

my first attempt at drawing a tooth! has lots of errors room for improvement 😁

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