The effect of scanning the palate and scan body position on the accuracy of complete-arch implant scans.

BACKGROUND

Whether stitching the palate during intraoral digital scans of implants would improve, scanning accuracy is unclear.

PURPOSE

Evaluate the effect of stitching the palate and the scan body position on the trueness (distance and angular deviation) and precision of digital scans in a completely edentulous situation.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

An edentulous maxillary model with four parallel dental implant analogs was fabricated and intraoral scan bodies were attached. The entire surface was scanned using an industrial scanner to generate a master reference model digital scan (MRM-DS). Digital scans of the master model were made using an intraoral scanner and the resulting scans were divided into two groups [stitched palate (S) and unstitched palate (U)]. All test scans were converted to STL files and superimposed over the MRM-DS.

RESULTS

For trueness, scan body position had a significant effect on distance (P < .001) and angular (P < .001) deviation values. In terms of precision, no significant difference was found in distance (P = .051) and angular deviations (P = .36) between stitched and unstitched techniques.

CONCLUSIONS

The accuracy and precision of digital scans of edentulous maxillary arch was similar independent of stitching or unstitching the palate. Position of the implant had a significant effect on trueness.