Objectives: The precision of a dental impression is an important and determining factor for the fit of dental restorations. A three-dimensional, non-destructive, computer-aided analysis has been established for the assessment of impression precision applying non-contact digitizing. Aim of this study was the examination of a new range of impression materials.
Methods: Duplicate dies (n=10) of a real model were made with five two-phase impression materials (Flexitime Putty/Flexitime Medium/Light Flow, Flexitime fast&scan Putty/Flexitime fast&scan Medium/Light Flow, Heraeus Kulzer; Honigum Heavy/Light, DMG; Germany), scanned by two different digitizers (Model Scan=MSC); (ODKM97, Fraunhofer IOF, Germany; D700, 3Shape, Denmark) and compared to the corresponding virtual CAD-model. For two materials, the impression itself was digitized (impression scan=ISC) with D700. The differences to the CAD-model were calculated (geomagic, Geomagic Inc., USA) and statistically analyzed with one-way ANOVA (SPSS 19.0, IBM, USA).
Results:
Material
| Impression technique
| Digitizing
| Mean pos. [�m]
| SD
| Mean neg. [�m]
| SD
|
Honigum
| two-stage
| MSC-ODKM97
| 11,1*
| 2,4*
| -11,5*
| 1,4*
|
| one-stage
| MSC-ODKM97
| 10,6*
| 1,3*
| -10,2*
| 1,1*
|
Flexitime light
| one-stage
| MSC-ODKM97
| 10,3
| 1,7
| � -8,9
| 0,6
|
| one-stage
| MSC-D700
| 16,2
| 1,5
| � -8,2
| 0,7
|
Flexitime medium
| one-stage
| MSC-ODKM97
| 14,5
| 3,3
| � -9,0
| 1,2
|
| one-stage
| MSC-D700
| 16,1
| 1,3
| � -8,3
| 0,5
|
Flexitime fast&scan light
| one-stage
| MSC-ODKM97
| 10,3
| 1,7
| � -8,7
| 0,6
|
| one-stage
| MSC-D700
| 14,3
| 1,1
| � -7,7
| 0,4
|
| one-stage
| ISC-D700
| � 6,4
| 1,1
| � -5,7
| 0,3
|
Flexitime fast&scan medium
| one-stage
| MSC-ODKM97
| � 9,2
| 2,1
| � -8,5
| 0,5
|
| one-stage
| MSC-D700
| 14,5
| 0,8
| � -7,7
| 0,5
|
| one-stage
| ISC-D700
| � 5,8
| 0,4
| � -5,6
| 0,4
|
*Data based on a former evaluation
Conclusion: All materials showed a high, clinically suitable precision with no significant differences. MSC with ODKM97 resulted in statistically significant lower deviations (material dependent p=0.009 to p=0.014) compared to D700. The ISC showed excellent values and significantly higher precision than the MSC as long as the ratio of width and height (1:1.5) was strictly kept. Further studies concerning tooth geometry are needed.
Keywords: Assessment, Dental materials, Digital image analysis, Impression materials and Polymers