STUDY ON THE BENEFITS OF USING DIAGNOSTIC WAX-UP IN DENTAL TREATMENT

Abstract

The diagnostic wax-up is a representation of the future prosthesis, allowing the patient’s checking and adaptation with the shape, color and position of the future prosthetic appliance, prior to the treatment being executed. It offers the possibility of the patient's active intervention in order to perform the prosthetic work and, with its help, the functional recovery and the correct evaluation of the occlusal rapports can be verified. Material and methods: This paper is a prospective study on a batch of 103 patients, who came to the dental practice and who were questioned, in order to evaluate the necessity to introduce the diagnostic wax-up into the prosthesis algorithm. The modality of obtaining the data was by the accounting of the information obtained after the answers to a questionnaire; the data obtained from the questionnaires were statistically interpreted by using SPSS version 14 program. Results: the results show that most of the patients (96%) consider the diagnostic wax-up to be useful as a communication tool with the dentist. However, there are patients who are reluctant (8%); the patients believe that the communication with the dentist can be improved which would lead to the increase in the satisfaction degree regarding the dental prosthesis in the oral cavity. Conclusions: Following this analysis, it can be concluded that diagnostic wax-up will become an indispensable tool in the dental practice and its advantages recommend it as a compulsory stage in the complex oral rehabilitation.