| Your pediatric patient needs a mouth stick and you | | | | needed for a good fit. Open package of |
| don't want to wait for the shipment to come in | | | | Sculpey. (Sculpey can be purchased at most craft |
| before starting treatment or you'd like to try using a | | | | stores or on the Internet at Knead clay until soft and |
| mouth stick with your patient before writing a | | | | smooth. Press into a 1/4" thick slab. Place pattern |
| justification and requesting a prescription from the | | | | on clay and trace with toothpick. Remove |
| doctor. In this article, I will show you how to easily | | | | pattern. Use toothpick to perforate clay on traced |
| create a pediatric mouth stick from polymer | | | | line. Remove excess clay. Smooth edges of clay |
| clay. Polymer clay is an inert baked clay. It | | | | with fingers and fine-tune shape as desired. Position |
| contains no materials in sufficient quantities to be | | | | dowel on mouthpiece and cover with clay to |
| toxic or injurious to the body, even if ingested." | | | | secure. Gently remove dowel. (This can be done by |
| Polymer Clay is not a food grade plastic. This is | | | | gently twisting and pulling the dowel from the |
| mainly because it is very porous so it doesn't sanitize | | | | clay.) Place extra clay in an airtight container for |
| well. This simply means you should not use the | | | | future use. Preheat oven to 275°. Place |
| mouth stick between patients. | | | | mouthpiece on pan or foil and bake for 30 minutes to |
| Materials | | | | cure. Let cool completely before removing from pan. |
| Pattern | | | | Test if your piece is adequately cured by pressing |
| Cardboard | | | | the tip of a fingernail into the bottom of your piece |
| Pencil | | | | after it has cooled; it will leave a mark but will not |
| Scissors | | | | actually enter the clay. Reinsert dowel. Try the |
| Sculpey III polymer clay | | | | mouth stick with your patient to determine the |
| Toothpick | | | | optimal length for the dowel. (Commercially available |
| Airtight bag or container | | | | mouth sticks are 12" - 17" long.) Cut the dowel to |
| Oven | | | | the desired length and glue into mouthpiece to |
| Oven-safe pan or aluminum foil | | | | secure. |
| 18" long ¼" wood dowel | | | | Options |
| Saw | | | | Add a pencil eraser to the end of the dowel for page |
| Glue for plastic | | | | turning and pointing. Tape or rubber band a |
| | | | | paintbrush to the dowel for art activities. Tape a |
| Instructions | | | | marker or pencil to the dowel for writing and drawing |
| | | | | tasks. Form mouthpiece with a Sculpey color that will |
| Trace pattern onto cardboard and cut out to create | | | | increase patient compliance. |
| a template. Try template on patient. Adjust as | | | | |