Accuracy of Three Digitization Methods for the Dental Arch with Various Tooth Preparation Designs: An In Vitro Study

Purpose To evaluate the accuracy of three digitization methods for the maxillary dental arch. Materials and Methods A maxillary typodont with various tooth preparation designs was used as the reference model. The scanned data were classified into direct scanning (DS), cast scanning (CS), and impression scanning (IS) groups according to the techniques applied for digitization (n = 10/group). An intraoral scanner was used for the DS group. Impressions obtained with polyether impression material were scanned with a tabletop scanner for the IS group. For the CS group, the definitive casts fabricated from the obtained impressions were scanned with the same tabletop scanner. The accuracy (trueness and precision) of the produced virtual dental casts was evaluated with specialized software. The full-arch and individual abutment deviations were measured with regard to root mean square error (RMSE) values. Data were analyzed with statistical software with an alpha=0.05. Results The RMSE values for both trueness and precision were lowest in the IS group, followed by the CS and DS groups, with statistically significant differences among the groups (p < 0.05). The trueness of individual abutments was significantly higher in the IS group than in the DS group. In addition, the trueness of individual abutments was affected by the location of the abutments in the DS group, whereas it did not differ between individual abutments in the CS and IS groups. Conclusions These findings suggest that the IS method is an accurate digitization technique for the creation of a virtual dental cast.