Intraoral Digital Impression Technique: A Review

With the techniques of computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) being applied in the field of prosthodontics, a concept of intraoral digital impressions was put forward in the early 1980s. It has drawn comprehensive attention from dentists and has been used for dental prosthesis fabrication in a number of cases. This new digital impression technique is expected to bring about absolute digitization to the mode of prosthodontics. A few published articles have indicated that dental prostheses fabricated from intraoral digital impressions have exhibited remarkable advantages over those from conventional impressions in several respects. The present review discusses intraoral digital impression techniques in terms of the following aspects: (1) categories and principles of intraoral digital impression devices currently available; (2) operating characteristics of the devices; and (3) comparison of the manipulation, accuracy, and repeatability between intraoral digital impression and conventional impression.