Influence of Scanning Strategies on the Accuracy of Digital Intraoral Scanning Systems

The digital intraoral impression is a central part in today's CAD/CAM dentistry. With its possibilities, new treatment options for the patient is provided and the prosthetic workflow is accelerated. Nowadays, the major issue with intraoral scanning systems is to gain more accuracy especially for larger scan areas and to simplify clinical handling for the dentist. The aim of this study was to investigate different scanning strategies regarding their accuracy with full arch scans in an in-vitro study design. A reference master model was used for the digital impressions with the Lava COS, the Cerec Bluecam and a powderfree intraoral scanning system, Cadent iTero. The trueness and precision of each scanning protocol was measured. Lava COS provides the a trueness of 45.8 µm with the scanning protocol recommended from the manufacturer. A different scanning protocol shows significantly lower accuracy (trueness ± 90.2 µm). Cerec Bluecam also benefits from an optimal scanning protocol with a trueness of ± 23.3 µm compared to ± 52.5 µm with a standard protocol. The powderfree impression system Cadent iTero shows also a high accurate full-arch scan with a trueness of ± 35.0 µm and a precision of ± 30.9 µm. With the current intraoral scanning systems, full arch dental impressions are possible with a high accuracy, if adequate scan strategies are used. The powderfree scanning system provides the same level of accuracy compared to scanning systems with surface pretreatment. Keywords: accuracy, full arch dental impression, digital impression, CAD/CAM