Direct Digitalization Devices in Today’s Dental Practice: Lab Scanners

Abstract

Every day, modern dentistry faces with new technologies, which have begun to be used in daily clinical practice, and computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing has brought new technologies and opportunities to all fields of dentistry. The first step is acquiring the true data, which belongs to the patients, digitalization of intraoral structures. By acquiring these data, the restorations can be designed and fabricated by using digital workflow. Dentists have two main options for capturing the data from the related surfaces; one is the direct digitalization and the other one is the indirect digitalization process. In the indirect process, extraoral scanners, which are called lab scanners or cast scanners, are used. Every system has different advantages and disadvantages, and the clinicians or dental technicians should know the technology and different features of these devices to choose the optimal device for their workflow.