International Journal of Computerized Dentistry, Pre-Print
Retana, Luciano / Nejat, Amir H / Pozzi, Alessandro
Seite 1 – 26
Aim: to evaluate the trueness of seven different intra-oral scanners (IOSs) in making a completearch digital scan with and without splinting the scan bodies.
Material and methods: A polyurethane model of an edentulous mandible with 4 dental implant analogues was prepared. Reference scan was made using a laboratory scanner. The reference model was scanned with each of the seven investigated IOSs (control groups, n=10 per scanner) and scanned again after splinting the scan bodies (study groups, n=10 per scanner). Each scan was exported as standard tessellation language (STL) file and transferred to a comprehensive metrology program (Geomagic Control X). In order to measure the trueness, four points (A, B, C and D) were determined on the scan bodies and the distance between point A and other points (DAB, DAC, DAD) was measured. The measurements were tested for normality using Kolmogrov- Smirnov test and probability plots. Trueness was compared using Three-way ANOVA and pairwise comparisons were performed using post-hoc Tukey and paired sample T-test. Statistical analyses were two sided, and the significance level was set at 5%.
Results: Splinting the scan bodies improved the trueness of the digital scans while increasing the inter-implant distance decreased the trueness values. Significant association was found between the trueness values and all three tested variables including splinting the scan bodies, type of IOS, and inter-implant distance (P<0.001).
Conclusion: Based on the present findings, splinting the scan bodies can improve the trueness of digital complete arch implant scans due to the improvement in morphological landmarks do the stitching process regardless of the type of the IOS or the inter-implant distance.