Traditional versus digital impression: compliance and preference in pediatric patients- review

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to compare the alginate impression with digital impression using the introral scanner Carestream 3600 and understand which is preferred by patients. 50 young orthodontic patients (25 boys and 25 girls) who had no previous experience of impressions were enrolled in the study. After the impressions the patients were subjected to a questionnaire for both types of impressions. They were asked about feelings of nausea and breathing issues related to whether a digital or alginate impression was taken. As for the feeling of nausea, 24 girls and 22 boys did not have this feeling with digital impressions; as regards breathing, 19 girls and 23 boys did not find respiratory problems with the intraoral scanner. At the end, patients were asked which method they preferred. About 75% both for girls and boys preferred the intraoral scanner. Therefore, the digital method was found to be the most comfortable for the patients.