Digital Wax-Up Service

Digital wax-up design turns a treatment plan into something a patient can see before it starts, and that visibility sells the case and de-risks the restoration at the same time. We build digital smile design mock-ups and diagnostic wax-ups from your scan and photos, aligned to proportion, midline and smile arc, ready for patient presentation or as the blueprint for the final restoration.

Why practices outsource digital wax-up design

A strong wax-up takes real design time to get proportion, midline and smile-arc alignment right, and that time competes with every other case on a busy design schedule. Outsourcing digital wax-up design means the mock-up gets the attention it needs without slowing down the rest of your caseload. We build every wax-up in exocad Smile Creator and 3Shape Dental System to the same standard, whether it is a single anterior case or a full smile makeover.

What is included in every digital wax-up design case

Every case returns a diagnostic wax-up STL and a mock-up design suitable for chairside try-in or patient presentation. Once approved, the same wax-up can be carried forward directly into crown, bridge or veneer design for full consistency between what the patient approved and what gets delivered — see our crown and bridge CAD design service for that next step.

Digital smile design principles are built into every wax-up and mock-up we deliver, not treated as an optional upgrade — proportion, midline and smile-arc analysis happen on every case regardless of complexity.

Quality control and turnaround

Tooth proportion and golden-ratio guidelines, midline and smile-arc alignment, and consistency with the final restoration plan are all checked before a wax-up is marked ready. Standard turnaround is 8 to 12 hours, fast enough to fit a same-week patient presentation.

Revisions continue until the wax-up is approved for patient presentation — a mock-up that has not won patient buy-in yet is not a finished deliverable, so we keep refining it until it is ready to present.

Getting started

Digital wax-up design pairs naturally with almost every other restoration type we design, since a mock-up is often the first step before the final case. For the rest of what we design, see the full services overview.

Most practices send a single trial case first — typically a straightforward anterior wax-up — to check proportion and turnaround against their own standard before routing regular case-planning volume through the portal. That trial period is short, since wax-up turnaround is already one of the faster services we offer.

Send your intraoral scan and smile photographs through the client portal along with your treatment goals, and a technician will have the mock-up back within the standard 8 to 12 hour window.

Digital wax-up design also gives practices a low-risk way to present a treatment plan before committing to final materials. Patients can see and react to the proposed change, and adjustments happen on the mock-up rather than on a restoration that has already been milled, which saves both chair time and material cost when a revision is needed.

Labs that support multiple clinics often use digital wax-up design as a standard first step for any case involving significant aesthetic change, since it gives every referring dentist the same consistent presentation tool regardless of which clinic submitted the case.