Over the past few decades, the biggest transformation in dentistry has been the gradual digitisation of the entire workflow process, which has not only helped to make consultations, treatment planning and prosthetics manufacturing easier.

One of the biggest revolutions in this department is the transition away from X-rays and towards various forms of three-dimensional scanner technology, which have themselves gone from bulky, complex units to easy-to-use handhelds.

These 3D scanners, which range from computed tomography (CT) scans used to produce 3D images to lightweight scanner wands, have allowed for a revolution, enabling quicker, faster and less messy scans to be made compared to dental impressions.

Here are the biggest advantages of using 3D scanners and why they have become so widespread.

More Accurate Scans

Traditionally, dental prosthetics and braces were planned through the use of dental impressions. They tended to be uncomfortable, awkward and not always entirely precise.

The impression tray could shift, the alginate used to make the impression was not the best-testing and could set off a gag reflex, leading to more than a few cases of patients accidentally vomiting on their dentist.

A simple wave of the scanner and a set of entirely digital three-dimensional virtual impressions become available. 

Faster Treatment Planning

On the subject of impressions, it traditionally took several weeks to plan a crown or set of braces, as the impression tray needed to be sent to a lab to create impressions, which were then sent to a dedicated dental laboratory to be used to design restorations.

The use of 3D scanners makes this process much easier; the impressions can be sent almost immediately to a laboratory, but it also opens the potential to use technologies such as CEREC to create dental restorations in as little as half an hour.

It also allows for the development of multi-step orthodontic processes, such as Invisalign, which use digital treatment planning intensively to make the process of swapping clear plastic aligners possible.