Wax Try-ins, Next Stop New Smile!
Wax try-ins are without a doubt the most interesting aspect of having your new denture made. After careful impressions, bite registrations, and tooth selections, a mock denture is created using wax for a base instead of acrylic. Although this wax base does not fit like the finished denture it does give us the opportunity for a preview of what you will look like with your new smile.
For some this will be a chance to try a look you have never seen before, maybe bigger teeth, a broader smile, perhaps more support around your lips and under your nose. For others it will be a return to the look of younger years with careful duplication of a photo, perhaps a wedding photo a patient has provided. Whatever the case may be this will be your chance to create your new look. Because the teeth are only set in wax changes are easily made, by simply softening the wax teeth can be moved up or down, forward or back, made more straight, or less even, perhaps with a small space between them. At this stage changes are easy.
Facial support is another important area to pay attention to. By varying the thickness in the wax that lays beneath your cheeks and lips, different results can be achieved. For some this means softening small lines that come with age, for others the desire may be fuller lips.
If you are unsure of your new look ask your denturist or dentist if you can take the try-ins home. Most offices will allow this, which will give you an opportunity to see it in your own light and mirrors or perhaps solicit the thoughts of a close friend. Remember others see you three dimensionally, and this can sometimes give you the final assurance you need before proceeding.
Once a try-in has been approved it will be turned into the finished product, and the appearance that has been carefully created is now permanent, and further changes are very difficult if not impossible to make.
The moral of this story that will make for a happy ending is: Never go beyond the wax try-in stage until your exact esthetic desires have been achieved.