Assessment of the effect of scan body splinting on the trueness of digital impression in complete-arch implant-supported prosthesis: A comparative in vitro study

Aim: To assess whether splinting of scan bodies or not affects the trueness of a complete-arch digital implant impression by comparing it with the gold standard splinted open-top conventional technique. Materials and Methods: A mandibular resin model with four parallel digital implant analogues in the 36, 33, 43, and 46 tooth positions was used. On the model, three impression techniques were performed: conventional splinted implant level open tray impression (Group I), digital impression using an intraoral scanner with separate scan bodies (Group II), and digital impression using an intraoral scanner with splinted scan bodies (Group III). The trueness of the impressions was evaluated using surface matching software. Statistical analysis was done using repeated measures ANOVA, followed by Bonferroni post hoc test. Results: The results revealed that there is a significant difference between the trueness of the three techniques (p > 0.001), with the least deviation recorded in Group I (54.45±5.60 µm) and the highest deviation recorded in Group II (97.90±6.62 µm). Conclusion Splinting of the scan bodies causes significant improvement in the trueness of the complete-arch digital impression using an intraoral scanner.