Digital Dental Tech LabSeoul National Univeristy School of Dentistry

Objective: To evaluate the effect of sequential and simultaneous capture strategies on the interimplant positional trueness of intraoral scans for two adjacent implants in different implant configurations.

Methods: Two distal-extension partially edentulous maxillary models were used: a short-span implant configuration with an 8.5-mm interimplant span simulating two-unit splinted crowns and a long-span implant configuration with a 15.0-mm span simulating a three-unit fixed dental prosthesis. Reference scans were obtained using a desktop scanner, and test scans were acquired using an intraoral scanner. Sequential and simultaneous capture strategies were evaluated using 10 repeated scans per strategy for each model. Trueness of the relative interimplant relationship was assessed using absolute linear and angular interimplant discrepancies. Data were analyzed using two-way ANOVAs, supplemented by a two-way MANOVA (α = .05).

Results: A significant interaction between capture strategy and implant configuration was observed for linear discrepancy (p = .009), whereas the interaction was not significant for angular discrepancy (p = .233). Simultaneous capture resulted in lower linear discrepancies than sequential capture in the short-span (7.21 ± 3.97 versus 24.60 ± 7.65 µm) and long-span (13.84 ± 4.63 versus 46.53 ± 14.36 µm) configurations (both p < .001). Angular discrepancies were also lower with simultaneous capture in the short-span (0.052 ± 0.019° versus 0.096 ± 0.028°; p = .045) and long-span (0.162 ± 0.059° versus 0.242 ± 0.065°; p < .001) configurations.

Conclusions: Within the two model configurations tested, the simultaneous-capture protocol produced lower mean linear and angular interimplant discrepancies than the sequential-capture protocol.

Clinical significance: The simultaneous-capture protocol may improve the recording of adjacent implant relationships without auxiliary devices. Its clinical effectiveness and the separate contributions of concurrent visualization, scanner trajectory, and tip inclination require further investigation.