Journal Of Dental Sciences, vol.17, pp.545-550, 2022 (SCI-Expanded)
Abstract Background/purpose: With the rise of digitalization in dentistry, intraoral scanners
and digital impressions have recently been adopted by many clinicians. The aim of this study
was to investigate surface topography of prepared teeth and the accuracy of digital impressions.
Materials and methods: Twenty mandibular typodonts, containing left first premolar and left
first molar abutment teeth manufactured by using CAD/CAM, were used in this study. An intraoral scanner was used to scan each typodont, and each STL file generated was exported
in high resolution (Group H), moderate resolution (Group M), and low resolution (Group L).
All 60 files were inspected in a 3-D mesh processing software. For each file, the number of
triangulation points in the meshwork were obtained for both abutment teeth.
Results: The measurements obtained from the 3-D mesh processing software revealed that the
mean number of triangulation points on the 3-D surface of the abutment teeth (20
premolars þ 20 M) were 790,625 98,890 dots in Group H, 592,283 74,881 dots in Group
M, and 198,067 19,328 dots in Group L. Significant differences were found between Group
H and M (p < 0.05), Group H and L (p < 0.001), and Group M and L (p