ClearCorrect, the makers of clear aligners and retainers for children and adults, recognizes that there are many ways to take an impression these days. They accept both traditional impressions and digital ones from intraoral scanners, including CEREC, Ormco Lythos, 3M True Definition, Carestream, iTero, 3Shape, TRIOS, E4D PlanScan, and Motion View Ortho Insight 3D. With that variety of digital scans coming through and that many aligners made that many different ways, they’ve come up with some feedback on 3D impression technology versus traditional PVS/VPS impression, at least in how it pertains to fabricating aligners. Here’s an overview of the advantages and disadvantages they’ve experien
ced:
Advantages to digital scanning: patient comfort, fewer “retakes,” reduced staff time per impression, higher accuracy, the ability to “patch” minor errors, no need to stock impression materials or trays, electronic submission, discounts offered by labs, perpetual storage without taking up space, the ability to review the digital model immediately.
Disadvantages: technique sensitive until mastered, some models take up valuable real estate in the operatory, data can be incomplete, upfront costs, per-scan or subscription costs if applicable, can’t be used to make a stone model.
Advantages of traditional impressions: familiar technique, less up-front cost, widely available materials.
Disadvantages: high-quality results require experience, it takes time to ship impressions, fewer conversion steps, material and staff time costs, storage space for all components, lack of patient comfort, cost of retakes, inconvenience of retakes, cannot be easily patched, defects are not always visible.
So if you are evaluating whether to switch to digital impressioning, hopefully this list will help your decision-making process. For more information, and to read more Tech Tips, click here.