Today we will talk about the importance of your scan body information for digital dental implant cases. Some dental offices don’t take it seriously, but it can decide whether the digital implant case will succeed or not.
1. Physical implant cases and digital implant cases
With physical implant cases, dentists often send dental impressions with transfer copings. By examining the transfers, dental labs can learn your implant manufacturer, implant system and implant connection (implant platform). Then we can match everything in our dental lab.
With a digital implant case, however, there are only scans in STL format, so we cannot examine the implant systems and implant platforms. Therefore, dental offices should let us know all the scan body details before we process dental cases.
2. Need your scan body information in full
Whenever you send us a digital implant case, please tell us your scan body information in full. Your scan body information must include implant manufacturer, implant system and implant connection (implant platform).
For example, some dental clinics ask to process with scan body for “Nobel Biocare WP”. This information is not enough, because it could be “Nobel Biocare Active WP” or “Nobel Biocare Replace WP”. Those belong to the same manufacturer, but they are 2 different implant systems with different connections.
3. Your scan body information should be correct
Let’s look at the above picture. The dental office asks to use scan bodies for “Straumann BL RC”, but with this information, we cannot match our scan bodies to the scans from the office (the right side picture in blue image), so we email the office to confirm. Later, the office tells that it is actually “Straumann BL NC”. Finally, we can match the scan bodies with “Straumann BL NC” (the left side picture).
Please be serious about your scan body information. The information should be exactly correct. For example, if you use a scan body for “Nobel Biocare Active WP”, you should clearly let us know that it is “Nobel Biocare Active WP”. However, if you tell us it is scan body for “Nobel Biocare Replace WP” (wrong information), then this implant case will be a total failure, because they are different implant systems with different implant connections.
4. Conclusion
In conclusion, your scan body information must include implant manufacturer, implant system and implant connection (implant platform). Dentists have preferences on what implant manufacturers to use. They may use several implant manufacturers. So dentists and their assistants should let us know the correct and full scan body information.
