In February 2008, the Lava™ Chairside Oral Scanner C.O.S. (Fig 1) was successfully launched by 3M ESPE (St Paul, MN, USA) in the United States. In German dental practices, the test phase started in October 2008. In Germany, the new intraoral scanner for direct digitization of teeth will be available in April 2009. The method of data capture of the Lava™ C.O.S. is based on the novel 3Din- Motion technology. This technology was developed by Brontes Technologies (Lexington, KY, US), which was founded by former employees of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and acquired by 3M in October 2006. First study results prove the reproducibly high precision of the Lava C.O.S.