The aim of the presented study was to analyse the influence of hard- and software updates on the transfer accuracy of digital implant impressions. In contrast to comparable studies, a measurement method was used in this presented study which additionally permits an analy-sis of the absolute three-dimensional deviations regarding to the increase of the scan path length.
In this context, digital impressions were taken with five representatives of the three scanner families (True Definition, Trios and CERREC) to investigate the transfer accuracy using an implant model. An industrial coordinate measuring machine was used to digitize and meas-ure the implant model (reference measurement) and the plaster models of the conventional impressions. By using a reference body, a coordinate system could be constructed with which all digital models could be aligned according to the same coordinate system as the coordinate measuring machine. Based on this geometric figures for determining the abso-lute three-dimensional deviation, the linear deviations and the deviations in the angle of inclination and rotation were constructed and examined. These results were compared with data from a previous study by KÄMPE76 regarding the hard- and software versions used.
The results showed that the current hard- and software versions - with the exception of the scanners of the True Definition scanner family - have significantly higher accuracy than their previous versions in all analysed parameters. The conventional impressions showed consistently high transfer accuracy over the entire arch for the three-dimensional distances and the linear deviations. However, they showed consistently greater errors for the devia-tions of the inclination and rotation angles.
In conclusion, updating the hard- and software version does not necessarily improve the transfer accuracy of digital implant impressions but the transfer accuracy of intraoral scan-ners is significantly depending on the hard- and software version. The use of intraoral scan-ners for whole jaw impressions seems promising but further studies are needed to investi-gate the transfer accuracy.
Haoyu Liu
Hardware Implantate Prothetik Software