3D assisted morphological analysis of lingual upper central and lateral incisor surfaces

To determine the lingual surface morphology of central and lateral upper incisors evaluating constant morphological regions for better adhesion of industrial prefabricated lingual brackets.

A total of 102 randomly selected patients at the end of the first phase of second dentition with intact central and lateral upper incisors participated in this study. After impression taking and cast model preparation, 3D laser scans of the lingual surface of the upper central and lateral incisors were taken (Laserscan 3D®, Willytec, Munich, Germany), digitalised, and transferred into CAD software to analyse the surface morphology by superimposition. For better comparison of morphological variations and determination of the most constant lingual regions, the surface was divided into five parts: incisal edge, mesial ridge, lateral ridge, cingulum, and medial sector. Statistical analysis was performed by the paired t-test.

Statistically significant differences were found in all surfaces, with cingulum as the most inconstant region. The most constant region was the medial sector and the mesial ridge.

As expected, the lingual surface underlies a high intra-individual variation complicating industrial prefabricated lingual brackets adhesion. However, the mesial ridge and the medial sector seem to be the most constant regions within intra-individual morphological variations.