Can senior and junior professionals perform similarly when experiencing the digital dental workflow on their first attempt?

For dental practitioners with decades of experience in conventional workflow, the transition to digital tools may be challenging. This study aimed to assess the first-time performance of senior and junior professionals in executing linear measurements on digital and 3D-printed dental casts with different dental arrangements - crowding, diastema, and inclined molars. From patients with crowding, diastema, and inclined molars, fifteen digital casts were obtained with intraoral scanning and subsequently 3D-printed with Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) and Digital Light Processing (DLP) technologies. Ten juniors (5-10 years post-graduation) and ten senior professionals (10-45 years post-graduation) performed linear measurements on the digital and 3D-printed casts. A dental stone cast was used as reference. Trueness and the time taken to analyze these casts were assessed. Data analysis used two-way ANOVA and the Tukey post-hoc test (p>0.05) for comparing professional experience in each dental arch condition and cast type. No significant differences in trueness across professional experience were found, regardless of dental arrangement and cast types. Time spent was also similar across groups. For 3D-printed casts, seniors averaged 82 seconds, while juniors took 64 seconds. On digital casts seniors spent 134 and juniors 80 seconds. The performance (trueness and time) of senior and junior professionals using the digital tools proposed in this study was similar. In recent years, the traditional dentistry workflow has increasingly been supplanted by digital technologies, a shift that impacts both seniors and juniors professionals. Recognizing and addressing the existing barriers is essential to facilitate a smooth, inclusive transition to digital dentistry for all practitioners.