Advanced smile diagnostics using CAD/CAM mock-ups

Diagnostics are essential for predictable restorative dentistry. Both patient and clinician must agree on a treatment goal before the final restorations are delivered to avoid future disappointments. However, fully understanding the patient's desires is difficult. A useful tool to overcome this problem is the diagnostic wax-up and mock-up. A potential treatment outcome is modeled in wax prior to treatment and transferred into the patient's mouth using silicon indexes and autopolymerizing resin to obtain the patient's approval. Yet, this time-consuming procedure only produces a single version of the possible treatment outcome, which can be unsatisfactory for both the patient and the restorative team. Contemporary digital technologies may provide advantageous features to aid in this diagnostic treatment step. This article reviews opportunities digital technologies offer in the diagnostic phase, and presents clinical cases to illustrate the procedures.