Comparative analysis on measuring performances of dental intraoral and extraoral optical 3D digitization systems

Abstract

Implementation of the methods of 3D digitization in dental practice is a modern and sophisticated alternative to the method of conventional impressions. Among many different methods of 3D digitization applied in dentistry, optical methods can be considered as today mostly applied, especially in the field of prosthodontics. The developments of this kind of systems have converged in two main directions - extraoral and intraoral systems. The main quality parameters for evaluating measuring performances of 3D digitization methods and systems include accuracy and precision. By introducing LED blue light in intra- and extraoral cameras, the Cerec system has significantly improved the quality of 3D digitization results. As the technical features of cameras in both types of systems are identical and the difference of the digitization methods is connected only to operating environments, the main goal of the research was to analyze whether different digitization conditions significantly influence the systems' measuring performances. Analyzes were focused on investigating accuracy and precision of two mentioned specialized dental optical systems on the basis of CAD inspection, with special attention on evaluating statistically significant differences within the obtained results. Statistically significant difference was not found in systems' precision, while the extra oral system was found as of significantly higher accuracy. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.