Implant Scan Bodies in Digital Dentistry

The traditional impression-taking technique in dentistry has begun to be replaced by digital impression systems with the development of technology. Digital impression technique has many advantages such as ease of standardization, the possibility of creating a virtual patient, easier to store data, accelerating the production process and ensuring more efficient use of time, and increasing patient comfort in patients with taste, smell sensitivity and gag reflex. With this developing impression technique, the impression of the relevant region is transferred indirectly to the digital environment with scanners. Accuracy of impressionmaking has importance in the successful production of implant-supported prothesis with a digital workflow. In the digital workflow, transfer of implant positions to the virtual environment is provided by implant scan bodies. It is critical to accurately match the image of the implant scan bodies stored in the virtual library of the computer-aided design software with the scan body in digital impression. This process is necessary to virtually determine the position of the implant within the design software. The material and the geometry of the implant scan bodies are some of the parameters that can affect scanning accuracy. In addition, factors such as the tightening torque applied to the scan bodies, the sterilization process, and the number of uses can also affect the sensitivity of the scan. The aim of this article is to present information about implant scan bodies used in digital impression and to examine the effect of the features of implant scan bodies on scanning accuracy.