Augmented reality assisted intraoral scanning of mandibular arch: A proof-of-concept pilot clinical study.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether the scanning time, trueness and number of photos are influenced when augmented reality (AR) heads-up display (HUD) is utilized during the intraoral scan of fully dentate mandibular arches. METHODS: A total of 10 patients (6 females and 4 males) were included. The mandibular arch of each patient was scanned twice using an intraoral scanner (Trios4 Pod IOS: 3Shape): one with and one without AR-HUD (ML2; Magic Leap). Further, alginate impression was taken, and the cast was digitized to acquire the reference model for trueness comparison (T310, Medit). The scan time and number of photos were recorded. Trueness was evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively using colored heat maps and RMSE values respectively. t-test was used to evaluate the difference in scan time, trueness, and number of photos between the two groups (alpha = .05). RESULTS: AR-assisted IOS resulted in significantly faster scan time (44 s) compared to the time consumed following conventional scan method without AR-HUD (63 s) (P = <0.001). The number of photos was also significantly less with AR-assisted IOS (836) compared to IOS using conventional technique without AR-HUD (1209) P = <0.001. No statistical difference was detected in RMSE between the test groups. CONCLUSIONS: Integration of AR technology with IOS process represents a promising potential to acquire digital impressions with reduced scan acquisition time and reduced images count while simultaneously maintaining the trueness of the acquired scans. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Augmented Reality presents an emerging potential in Prosthodontics to acquire digital impressions with decreased number of images and acquisition time.