Precision Test of a Multifunctional Scan Body for the Scan and Cross-Mount of an Edentulous Arch: A Pilot Case-Control Study

The primary goal of this pilot study was to evaluate, via 3D analysis, the scan body precision of an intraoral digital scan utilizing a custom multifunctional scan body compared to that of digitized stone models fabricated from a conventional open tray impression in the fully edentulous maxilla and mandible. The secondary goal of this study was to showcase a method for utilizing the scan body library to generate a fixed fiducial marker for the cross-mount of an edentulous arch. Comparative analysis was performed as a case-control study. A custom scan body was utilized to generate the positions of the titanium bases from the intraoral models and digitized stone models of three maxillary arches (all-on-6, all-on-5, and all-on-4) and two mandibular arches (both all-on-4). The titanium base positions were compared using advanced 3D inspection software. The mean ± SD deviation was 30.38 ± 17.78 μm (95% CI: 14.8 to 45.97 μm), with mean deviations of 38.73 ± 19.24 μm (95% CI: 16.96 to 60.5 μm) in the maxilla and 17.85 ± 0.92 μm (95% CI: 16.58 to 19.12 μm) in the mandible. The present results were promising, showing that deviations between the intraoral impressions and the digitized stone models fell within established tolerance ranges. Initial studies showed promising results that the digital workflow could be implemented with success similar to the conventional approach. Using the scan body library to generate a fiducial marker successfully demonstrated an efficient method for cross-mounting the edentulous arch.