This is the last of our interview series with Professor Ji-Man Park, an expert in the digital dentistry field. In this final part, Park shares his criteria for choosing an intraoral scanner and discusses the role of accuracy . You can read about Park’s experience in intraoral scanning and his views on the affordability of intraoral scanners and the learning curve for intraoral scanning in the previous editions of this series.
You have been in the teaching profession and have been doing a lot of research about intraoral scanners, so I am sure that you have tried out many different intraoral scanners. What made you decide on the Medit i500 out of the various intraoral scanners available in the market?
My first impression of this intraoral scanner was that the scanner tip was small and the scanner wand itself was light, which made it easy to pick up and work with the scanner. The small tip size makes it more comfortable for the patient and the light weight makes it easier for the dentist to scan smoothly and acquire more accurate data. In addition, functions such as automatic tissue deletion and reverting to a previous scanning step are helpful in clinical practice. Once scanning has been completed, the data is automatically uploaded to the server as well, saving both disk space and time. Finally, it is also well known that the technicians who developed the scanning software optimized the post-processing technology.
I think that many people are still hesitant to introduce intraoral scanning into their practice because of doubts that intraoral scanning is clinically valid. How accurate is the data acquired using intraoral scanners?
A systematic review comparing digitally scanned and model-free prostheses to conventionally constructed prostheses showed no difference in crown marginal fit. The results show that the accuracy of the intraoral scanner is comparable to that of the conventional method. Research on intraoral scanning accuracy, including my own research, shows satisfactory levels of scan resolution, quadrant-arch scan accuracy, and individual tooth scan performance while deviations of the digital impression during a complete arch scan show negligible results.
The degree of the deviation is an important factor in the evaluation of the performance of intraoral scanners. When we looked at the results of the study, which was designed to evaluate the performance of intraoral scanners where we compared the reference scan data with the scan data obtained by various intraoral scanners, the ability of the i500 to reproduce consistent results was similar to the reference scanner.
With the support of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Medit’s latest intraoral scanner is involved in clinical studies to compare the accuracy of crown fittings. The first phase of this study will be completed by the end of this year, where I will be able to report on the results of the crown fittings obtained with the i500 scanner.
This is exciting news! Medit is proud to be part of this study and we are already looking forward to the results and findings. Thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us.
That concludes our interview series with Professor Ji-Man Park! We hope you’ve enjoyed reading his insights on intraoral scanning and why you should consider introducing it into your practice if you haven’t already done so. You can find out more about our i500 intraoral scanner on our product page.
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