What is a Diagnostic Wax-Up?
This page will enlighten you about the most critical tool for complex cosmetic dentistry.
Diagnostic wax-ups are used for many reasons:
- to diagnose potential problems
- to identify the solutions
- to design tooth shapes and arch forms before touching a tooth
- to diagnose if and how worn teeth can be rebuilt
- to explain to the patient what can be achieved
- to communicate and share goals with the patient
- to fabricate a matrix from the wax-up that will be used as a mold for the next step of comprehensive cosmetic dentistry: the provisional restorations
Before designing a diagnostic wax-up, the following questions need to be answered:
1. What doesn't the patient like about his current smile?
2. Are there any bite problems or grinding habits?
3. Does the gum line need to be altered?
4. Does the dental midline coincide with the facial midline?
5. Is the buccal corridor full or collapsed?
6. How many teeth need to be included?
7. What is the physiological bite relationship?
It is important to find every problem when examining a patient. Signs, which patients often fail to recognize (because they do not bother them, YET!), almost always precede symptoms.
So it is not enough to rely on a patient expressing what he or she wants. Patients also need to be informed about every aspect of their oral health and
the implications of ignoring potential problems.
The diagnostic wax-up helps determine if a case is easily resolved or extremely complicated. It helps to determine if other adjunctive treatments,
such as orthodontics or oral surgery, will be necessary. All the information of a diagnostic wax-up is obtained without having to cut a tooth and
will help the patient to make an educated choice about whether or not he or she is willing to go through the time and expense of the treatment. It
is an excellent communcication tool.
In the hands of a talented dentist, the diagnostic wax-up can be incorporated into a smile image of a patient using Photoshop. It gives the patient
a good idea how a particular wax-up design would look in the patient's face:
The diagnostic wax-up is the ultimate tool of comprehensive cosmetic dentistry. It works out potential complications, refines the treatment plan, and allows the
patient to make an educated choice about his treatment options.
The diagnostic wax-up is is used for the fabrication of matrices that will serve as molds for the creation of provisional restorations in the patient's mouth.
This can be done on unaltered teeth or on prepared teeth, depending on the pre-existing clinical situation.
The diagnostic wax-up can be used for simulations with Photoshop. A talented dentist is able to integrate both the image of a wax-up with the image of a patient's
pre-operative smile. The right image above is such a simulation.
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