As a periodontist, I’m often inundated with dubious scientific claims from large corporate conglomerates about one or another product or service.
And like most people, I like cutting to the chase and want to see the science – the raw data – and base my treatment on that.
Enter digital / CAD-CAM impressions for dentistry. It’s one of the fastest growing technologies, and also one of the most expensive for dentists to own. The Journal of the American Dental Association recently published a paper which evaluated 6 of the most popular systems currently being marketed to dentists. For reference, the cost of each system (not including a CAM / milling machine) can easily exceed $40,000. Yeah.
The advantages of a digital scanner are numerous – no impression materials, and much, much higher accuracy. But are all scanners created equal? Based on the science, the answer is a resounding no.
The numbers speak for themselves. Interestingly, Omnicam and Planscan are very popular (perhaps the most popular) CAD-CAM units, and so it’s quite surprising that they also have the lowest trueness measurement in this study.
The lesson is clear: science can be a wonderful thing.