Three Uses for Red Rope Wax

In my practice, there are times when I don’t need impression material to go into certain places. I have found red rope wax to be a quick, cheap, and easy solution to the following clinical situations:

• Taking closed-tray impressions of implant posts. Putting a little red rope wax into the hex of the retention screw right before taking your impression affords your lab to quickly and easily place the implant impression post without issues of aligning the screw head in the final impression.
• Broken teeth and/or lost fillings. If you have missing tooth structure or filling and need to take a preop impression, you can place red rope wax. Have the patient bite into it and quickly adapt it, then take a quick impression. It usually will stay in place long enough to get this done.
• Undercuts and/or open embrasures. You can easily adapt red rope wax in undercuts and embrasures to help heavy-body impression material from locking into these areas and making removal difficulty for you and the patient.