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.