Digital Impressioning

With all the new digital impressioning systems out there, you are probably wondering which one is the best. I can't answer that for you. Each system has it's advantages and disadvantages. The one thing I can do is help inform you on the benefits of the most popular systems.

There are 4 main competetors producing chairside oral scanners that are being used in the Dayton area. They are: Sirona, E4D, Lava, and Itero. These chairside units may seem expensive and a little intimidating at first, but they are well worth the investment for not only dentists, but the labs as well. These machines are the future of dentistry. In the next 15 years, most dentists offices should have one in their practice.

One thing all these companies have in common is the training they give for their oral scanners. Most give 2 day training in the office of the dentist. The trainer will come to your office and train you in its use on the first day. Usually the second day is set aside for the trainer to sit back and watch the doctor implement the oral scanner in their office. He is there to answer questions and help with any problems. The trainers are always very knowledgeable about their systems and can assist in any way possible. Some companies even will fly the dentist and office staff out for training courses at their main training center for some more advanced training.

Now Im sure you're wondering: "Which one should I go with?" Well, the choice is up to you. I could go on and on about which one does what thing better, but the things that I find great may not be as advantagous to you. So here's a list of the main features of each:

Cerec AC (Sirona)
- Usually takes about 6 shots to get a quadrant and the full arch varies.
- Takes a shot of the buccal to align bite.
- Cases can be sent directly to lab of your choice.
- Very linear software. Which means if you need to fix something 2 steps back, you lose the information in between.
- Scans are only of the occlusal view, which means the software fills in what it cant see.
- Company has 25+ years of experience making CAD/CAM systems and oral scanners for the dental industry.
- Have to purchase a dongle to be able to send/mill files.
- Can purchase a mill for the office to mill out easier restorations.
- Closed architecture which means you cant use any other mill/scanner with the system. Can accept 3Shape files.

E4D (Henry Schien)
- Can take as many or as little shots as you want to capture images.
- Can roll the camera buccal/lingual to capture more data.
- Software is very user friendly.
- Offers a mill for use in both the lab and dental office.
- Very good customer service/tech support.
- Can scan both soft tissue and tooth structure, pre-operative situations, preparations, and all bite registration materials without the need for a contrast agent or opaqueing medium such as powder or sprays.
- Entire system is wireless. Can have one mill that multiple workstations can connect to.
- Can scan impressions.
- Closed architecture with the exception of accepting 3Shape files in the near future.
- Files can be sent to lab or milled in house.

COS (Lava)
- Uses 3D-in-Motion technology to continuously capture approximately 20 3D data sets per second.
- The wand weighs just 14 ounces and the tip is just 13.2 millimeters wide for easy movement and clearance throughout the mouth.
- Real-time video images provide users with instantaneous feedback and the ability to assess preparation and tissue management.
- Touch Screen
- Both dentists and labs have the same advanced tools to review the preparation and margin, video review, 2D enhancement or 3D stereographic review.
- Closed architecture.
- Cost is higher than other chairside systems.

Itero (Cadent)
- Very accurate scans.
- Large number of scans needed to create image.
- Doctor or lab can mark margins.
- Open architecture. Currently supports exporting to Straumann, Dental Wings, and 3Shape.
- Tiered pricing for models.
- Models most expensive.
- Extensive quality control done by Cadent.
- Very easy to use, non-linear program.
- No powder needed to scan.
- Wand is very large and bulky which makes it harder to get molars.

I hope this helps all the dentists out there that were on the fence about getting a digital impressioning system. These companies are constantly making new advances in the field of digital dentistry and hopefully you will jump on board. If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment as I check the blog daily.