European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 12, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Creating the right bite by Janet d Agostino medical writer each tooth is shaped polished and painted with the same meticulous care that might be used to create a delicate porcelain figure or sculpture attention to the tiniest detail is essential because each tooth must fit into the Mouth As comfortably As the real thing. A false tooth that has an out of place Ridge or Cusp could cause pain or discomfort and serious dental problems. If the Shade of the tooth is too White or too yellow the owner might be Loo embarrassed to smile the Teeth created at the . Air Force s Wiesbaden West Germany area dental lab will be part of fixed or removable crowns and Bridges. The area dental lab is the largest military lab of its kind in Europe. Service members assigned there by the air Force and army construct crowns and other types of Quot dental appliances Quot for people throughout Europe. It All starts with impressions of the patient s Mouth made by his dentist together with instructions from the dentist they arc sent to the dental lab at the air Force regional medical Center in Wiesbaden. The 41 military and civilian technicians work at lab desks surrounded by equipment resembling that in any dentist s office. Three prosthodontist a specialists who Deal with dentures crowns and Bridges a Are assigned to the lab. Construction of the appliances starts with recreation of a tooth or Crown in coloured dental Wax from an impression of the patient s own Pearly Whites. Quot everything starts out in Wax Quot says chief master sgt. John a. Willis manager of the dental lab. The process is the same for a single Crown or a fixed Bridge which can contain from two to 16 crowns. A Crown is a Metal porcelain or plastic reproduction of the outside of a tooth affixed to what s left of the natural tooth. When making the waxed pattern of the tooth Quot you have to be As precise As you can Quot says senior airman Daniel s. Larock a dental lab specialist. If the first Wax creation which serves As a foundation for the following Steps is not accurate then most Likely the finished product also will be wrong. A Mold is made of the finished Wax pattern of the tooth or Teeth. Then the Wax is eliminated from the Mold by melting it in an oven. Once the Wax is melted it is put in a centrifugal casting machine where Gold is melted and forced into Shade guide above is used to match color of false Teeth with patients natural Teeth Michael Busby right duplicating a molar in Wax. The Mold. This creates a replica of the tooth in Gold. Gold is usually the Metal of Choice because it can be cast to Fine edges is easy to work with and does t Wear away the natural Teeth said col. Martin j. Dohaney director of the lab. The Gold tooth is then sent to the finishing department where technicians like air Force sgt. David Maurer prepare the Metal using Han pieces and a Microscope. Tiny nodules Are removed using finishing burrs of different sizes. A paste with Fine grit helps polish the Gold in preparation for the application of porcelain. Before the polished tooth passes to the porcelain department master sgt. Andrew tonne inspects the crowns to make sure they Are sufficiently polished that the shape or contour of the tooth is Correct and that the tooth fits correctly on the working Model of the patients Mouth. The Pearly Sheen that will make the Crown look like a real incisor or molar is applied by hand in the porcelain department. The Gold tooth is first oxidized in an oven so that it has a slightly Rusty surface which allows the porcelain to adhere to the tooth. A powdered Glaze applied first to the tooth blocks Vanessa Johnson uses a Clamp device that simulates jaw movements to Check the fit of a partial denture. Out the dark color of the Gold. Porcelain matched to the Shade of the patient s natural Teeth is then applied j to the Crown with brushes or other dental instruments. There Are also stain kits with different colors to add special effects. For example Teeth might have dark streaks or be stained from tobacco or caffeine. Such Fine details Are necessary Quot if you want the tooth to look right Quot insists air Force master sgt. Steven Robar. The tooth is then contoured to remove excess porcelain and Given a final Glaze and High Shine. Army sgt. Darlene Furlow said one of the most difficult aspects of her Job is Matching tiny characteristics of the tooth from the impression. It requires patience but Furlow likes what she does enjoyable making someone look  Bombeck when our kids were Small we had a breakfast Cereal code. A Box of Cereal had to die before you could replace it with a new one. All that changed recently when Oats made the trip from the barns to the breakfast tables of America. But this time it was my husband who went crazy. We have enough boxes of oat bran Cereal in our House to put the entire City into a fiber coma. As a junk food disciple i Haven t had it easy. It s Boen an Uphill Battle working my Way through the shelves of oat muffins oat pasta oat cookies and. It s Only a suspicion. Oat laxatives. The other Day i grabbed a Bun for my hot dog and paused. Quot what s the matter with this Bun Quot i asked. Quot nothing. Why Quot my husband answered. Quot it looks like someone dropped it on the  Quot it s made out of oat bran Quot he said. There is something incongruous about the marriage of a hot dog to an oat bran Bun. Its like making a Root Beer float out of a diet Root Beer and Haagen dazs. I threw open the cupboards and commanded Quot look at yourself. You re out of control. There must be a dozen boxes of oat bran Cereal in Here. No one has a right to be this  Quot two Are unopened Quot he challenged. Quot i bought them the other Day to get a plastic foam  that s what too much oat bran does to people. If you took advertising seriously you d think the Only things we pursue in this country Are cold remedies and breakfast cereals. The latter used to be something we told kids was Good for you but we never ate it ourselves. Now we re telling ourselves if we Graze a the breakfast table Well live longer. For the past several years i be watched and Listene my husband in his Pursuit of a Well balanced fiber diet every Tablespoon of oat bran he puts in his Mouth he c 1 37 times before he swallows it. That averages out to do seconds with a Decibel level approaching that of a commuter train. An average bowl contains 23 spoon u that s 874 seconds or 14 minutes 34 seconds in tha amount of time i could listen to the minute Waltz 14 inn talk to All three of my kids answering machines. Ans my mail or jog half a mile. Read the other Day that the new Gram of the month would most Likely be Rice. The Only problem is a nutritionists can to find any proven health Beneti s maybe the offer of a plastic foam glider with eve y would do it. C 1990 Erma Bombeck Page 16 a a a the stars and stripes monday March 12,1990