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Purpose The use of removable complete dentures is a selectable restorative procedure for edentulous patients. To improve the fabrication quality and efficiency of removable complete dentures, this paper aims to introduce a new method to fabricate customized wax complete dentures with additive manufacturing. This process uses complementary digital technologies, and allows faster and better manufacture of complete dentures.Design/methodology/approach In the study, a dental scanner was used to obtain surface data from edentulous casts and rims made by the dentist. A parameterized three-dimensional graphic database of artificial teeth was pre-established. Specialized computer-aided design software was used to set up the artificial dentition and design the esthetic gingiva and base plate. A selective laser sintering machine was used to transfer the data from stereolithography files into a wax base plate with location holes for each artificial tooth.Findings Under this method, a set of wax base plates with 28 location holes available for the placement of the artificial teeth were designed and fabricated within 6 h. The try-in wax dentures fitted the patient’s mouth well, besides occlusion relationships. Then, the occlusion relationships can be adjusted manually to achieve a balanced centric occlusion.Originality/value This method can be used to design and fabricate wax try-in removable complete dentures semi-automatically and rapidly; however, the algorithm for the occlusion contact design needs to be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]