Digital impressions in dentistry: A literature review

Abstract

The importance of this research lies in knowing the effectiveness of digital impressions in dentistry.Methodology: A compilation of articles published in the last 5 years was carried out using the PubMed electronic database. Abstracts and full texts were identified that included information on factors that influence digital impressions in dentistry: “scan”, “time”, “impression”, “digital”, and “conventional”.Results: An intraoral scan is faster and more accurate than a conventional impression. The scanner does not allow us to obtain a termination line if it is subgingival, as well as the pixel capacity, it can also provide us with a patient model in a more straightforward and more comfortable way. It allows us to have a future visualization and a record of before and after each treatment. Conclusions: Digital impressions have brought innovation to impression-taking and have partially set aside conventional methods. They offer significant advantages, such as time efficiency, patient comfort, simplification of clinical procedures, and storing and capturing information that can be used over time. They also facilitate diagnosis and treatment planning. Among the disadvantages of using it are the high cost and the existence of a learning curve for the use of intraoral scanners.