Dawson Quick Tip: Creating Anterior Guidance on Wax-Ups

When I first started waxing up my cases in the Dawson Philosophy, I learned later that I had encountered a mistake where I had really steepened anterior guidances on the wax-ups and didn’t really quite understand why I continued to do it. When I slowed down and I took a look, I realized that I wasn’t taking into account that the articulator helps us. It gives a little fudge factor.

A patient’s condylar path is often more steep in the mouth than what the articulator naturally has, unless you’re changing the condylar path. And so if you have a significant degree of separation on your wax-up, with posterior disclusion pretty quickly, in the mouth it’s going to disclude even more steeply and faster.

So you want to keep your anterior guidance on your wax-ups pretty shallow, just to barely allow the back teeth to come apart. So hope it helps you.