Dr. Stephen Wagner
Stephen A. Wagner, DDS, FACP. Board-certified prosthodontist and maxillofacial prosthodontist, in private practice in Albuquerque since 1978.
Training
Dr. Wagner received his dental degree from the University of Southern California School of Dentistry in 1975. He completed his prosthodontic residency at the Wadsworth Veterans Administration hospital in Los Angeles and his maxillofacial prosthodontics training at MD Anderson Hospital in Houston, finishing in 1978. He opened his practice in Albuquerque the same year.
He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Prosthodontics and a Fellow of the Academy of Maxillofacial Prosthetics, the American College of Prosthodontists, and the Academy of Prosthodontics. He is President-Elect of the Pacific Coast Society for Prosthodontics. He chairs the Historical and Archives Committee of the American Academy of Maxillofacial Prosthetics, and he is a Life Member of the American Dental Association, the New Mexico Dental Association, and the Albuquerque District Dental Society.
Practice
The practice is limited to prosthodontics: complete and partial dentures, implant-supported dentures and bridges, full-mouth reconstruction, and maxillofacial prosthodontics. In the maxillofacial work he restores chewing and speech for patients who have lost part of the mouth, palate, or face to cancer surgery, trauma, or congenital conditions.
Dr. Wagner examines every patient, plans the treatment, and checks each denture at every stage. Relines, repairs, and adjustments are done in the office.
Digital dentures
Every denture the practice makes is designed and fabricated digitally. Impressions and records are taken in the office, scanned, and sent to AvaDent, where the denture is milled from the digital design. He is Chief Clinical Officer for Global Dental Science, the company behind AvaDent.
A conventional denture takes four or five appointments and is cured by hand in a process that introduces small errors of fit. The digital process takes three, and because the base is milled straight from the design, the finished denture rarely needs adjustment. Dr. Wagner worked with the first digital denture manufacturers when the technique was new, and he teaches it to dentists and technicians in lectures and hands-on courses.
Teaching, editing, and research
Dr. Wagner is a Clinical Professor at the Woody L. Hunt School of Dental Medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso. He is the editor of the American College of Prosthodontists' Board Study Guide, the text prosthodontists use to prepare for their certification exam, and he serves on the review board of the International Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Implants.
His clinical research interest is work simplification in removable and maxillofacial prosthodontics and the fabrication and clinical use of digitally made removable prosthetics. He lectures on digital dentures, implant overdentures, and impression technique through the Catapult Education speakers bureau.
The Wagner Tray
A good denture starts with a good impression, and the best impressions are made in a custom tray, which normally means a preliminary impression, a plaster model, a lab-made tray, and a second appointment. Dr. Wagner designed the Wagner Tray, which a dentist can reshape chairside in a few minutes to fit any patient, complete denture, overdenture, or implant case. The tray is made of Wagner Compound, a shape-retaining thermoplastic he developed: it softens in hot water, is molded in the patient's mouth, and sets again in cold water. It came out of his work-simplification research, was granted US Patent 8,376,738 in 2013, is made in the United States, and is sold to dentists through his company, bigjawbone LLC.
Recognition
The American College of Prosthodontists named him Private Practitioner of the Year in 2014.
Every year Albuquerque The Magazine asks the city's dentists to vote for the colleagues they would trust with their own family. Dr. Wagner has been on that Top Dentists list in prosthodontics in 2014, when he was listed first, 2015, 2016, 2020, 2021, when the magazine ran a two-page profile of him as the top prosthodontist, 2022, 2023, 2024, when he placed second, and 2025, when he was in the top three.
His dental photography has been published by The New York Times, Newsweek, ABC News, the Discovery Channel, the Journal of the American Dental Association, the American Dental Association's patient education pamphlets and website, and medical and dental textbooks.
In print
- Digitally Fabricated Removable Complete Denture Clinical Workflows using Additive Manufacturing Techniques, with Robert Kreyer. Journal of Prosthodontics, 2021.
- The AvaDent Wagner EZ Protocol, a case report in the series "7 Ways to Fabricate Digital Dentures." LMT, October 2021.
- Veteran Denture Maker Embraces New Options, a profile. Inside Dental Technology, January 2021.
- Is the future of dentures digital?, an interview. Dental Products Report, February 2017.
- An Efficient and Cost-Effective Technique to Construct an Intraoral Central Bearing Tracing Device, with Kevin Lin. Journal of Prosthodontics, 2015.
- Better Dentures, Not Faster, with Robert Kreyer. Voices from the Bench podcast, episode 371, 2025.
- Top Dentists, prosthodontics. Albuquerque The Magazine, September issues of 2014, 2015, 2016, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.
- Degrees
- DDS, University of Southern California, 1975
- Residency
- Prosthodontics, Wadsworth VA Hospital, Los Angeles
- Advanced training
- Maxillofacial prosthodontics, MD Anderson Hospital, Houston, 1978
- Board certification
- Diplomate, American Board of Prosthodontics
- Fellow of
- Academy of Maxillofacial Prosthetics; American College of Prosthodontists; Academy of Prosthodontics
- Offices
- President-Elect, Pacific Coast Society for Prosthodontics; Chair, Historical and Archives Committee, American Academy of Maxillofacial Prosthetics
- Member of
- American Prosthodontic Society; International College of Prosthodontists; American Dental Association, New Mexico Dental Association, and Albuquerque District Dental Society (Life Member)
- Appointments
- Clinical Professor, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso; Editor, ACP Board Study Guide; Review Board, International Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Implants; Chief Clinical Officer, Global Dental Science (AvaDent)
- Award
- Private Practitioner of the Year, American College of Prosthodontists, 2014
- Top Dentists
- Albuquerque The Magazine, peer-voted, prosthodontics: 2014 (first), 2015, 2016, 2020, 2021 (top prosthodontist, profiled), 2022, 2023, 2024 (second), 2025 (top three)
- Patent
- US 8,376,738, Universal impression trays and method of use
