Effect of different intraoral scanners and post-space depths on the trueness of digital impressions

BACKGROUND: The trueness of intraoral scanners (IOSs) has been evaluated in many clinical situations. However, the tests of their performance when scanning post-space preparations are still lacking. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present study was to compare the trueness of the digital impressions of post spaces with different depths, captured by means of different IOSs. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Digital impressions of teeth (N = 16) with post spaces of depths of 8 mm and 10 mm were captured. Three IOSs were used, including Primescan AC, Medit i500 and CS 3600. The STL files were compared to the files obtained from the traditional impression scanning performed with an InEos X5 desktop scanner. Then, reverse engineering software measured the trueness values, which were analyzed using the two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), followed by Tukey's post-hoc test. The significance level was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: Significant differences were found between the scanners in terms of root mean square (RMS) values (p < 0.001). The highest RMS value was found for CS 3600 (0.30 ±0.11 mm), followed by Primescan AC (0.26 ±0.09 mm), while the lowest value was found for Medit i500 (0.18 ±0.05 mm). The 8-millimeter-deep post spaces had a significantly higher RMS value than the 10-millimeter-deep ones (0.28 ±0.10 mm and 0.21 ±0.09 mm, respectively) (p = 0.009). CONCLUSIONS: The Medit i500 scanner showed the highest post-space digital impression trueness as compared to Primescan AC and CS 3600. In the digital impressions captured with CS 3600, the 10 mm postspace depth had higher trueness than the 8 mm depth. Moreover, CS 3600 was less able to capture the full length of both the 8 mm and 10 mm post-space depths than Primescan AC and Medit i500.