Short answer
A diagnostic wax-up is the final tooth form designed in CAD on your scan, before any tooth is prepped. The same design can be 3D-printed in resin as a trial restoration you try in. The patient sees length and shape before treatment starts, and you get a reference for the prep and the definitive restoration.
What it is
A diagnostic wax-up is a design of the tooth form you’re aiming for at the end of treatment, made before any prep. We design it in CAD on your scan file, or on the model after we digitize it.
The printed trial crown takes that design into the mouth. It’s a 3D-printed resin piece you try in on the patient to judge length, shape and how it reads in the smile.
When to order it
It earns its place whenever the final form is still open and the next step can’t be undone. In a clinical report by Villalobos-Tinoco and colleagues (Cureus, 2022), an additive wax-up showed whether veneers could be done with minimal prep. The mock-up then let the patient judge the esthetics before any reduction.
A try-in has limits too. Moldovani and colleagues (International Journal of Prosthodontics, 2023) compared resin mock-ups with the wax-up they came from: every one was larger, most of all in the incisal third. Measure the try-in against the design rather than trusting the eye alone.
How we make it
The wax-up and the trial crown are designed on your scan, with the length and volume you asked for on the Rx, and printed in our lab in São Paulo, Brazil. Every stage is validated and logged before the piece ships, and you follow its phase in the portal.
What to send
The essentials are in our case submission guide. For a wax-up, the order needs a clear goal: which teeth, how much length, what shape. Smile photos help the design respect the lip line and midline, and our scanning guide covers capturing both arches and the bite. If you need a printed model or a silicone index to make the mock-up chairside, we’ll confirm it with you when the case is opened.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between the wax-up and the trial crown?
The wax-up is the design of the final tooth form. The trial crown is a resin piece printed from that design for a try-in. You can order the wax-up on its own or both together.
Will a chairside mock-up match the wax-up exactly?
Not exactly. In a 2023 study in the International Journal of Prosthodontics, every resin mock-up came out larger than the wax-up, with the incisal third the least accurate. A clear silicone matrix supported by a tray gave the best dimensional control.
Can the wax-up guide the final restoration?
That's what it's for. The form approved at the try-in guides the prep, the provisional and the final design. If anything changed at the try-in, scan the approved version in the mouth and send it with the next order.
Do I need to send photos?
For esthetic cases, yes. A smile photo shows lip line, midline and facial proportions, which a scan alone doesn't capture. If shade is also being decided, include a photo with the shade tab in frame.
Sources
- Additive wax-up and diagnostic mockup as driving tools for minimally invasive veneer preparations · Cureus (2022)
- Accuracy of indirect veneer mock-up in comparison to diagnostic wax-up · The International Journal of Prosthodontics (2023)
- Impact of material and silicone index support using additively manufactured trays on the reproducibility of diagnostic trial restorations (mock-up) — a comparative in-vitro study · Journal of Dentistry (2025)