Tolerances in the production of six different implant scanbodies: a comparative study

To investigate and compare the production tolerances of six different commercially available implant scan bodies (SBs), with the null hypothesis that there would be no tolerances in the production or significant differences between the different SBs.

Six different implant SBs (IO 6A-B and IO 2B-B, Nobel Biocare; RC 4.1 mm 025.4915 and RN 4.8 mm 048.168, Straumann; KR 352KR1A0, BTK BIOTEC; and AANISR4013T, MegaGen) were evaluated. Five specimens of each SB type (a total of 30 samples) were screwed onto the corresponding implant analogs and underwent dimensional analysis with optical microscopy (QVI Smartscope Flash 200, Optical Gaging Products) and precision probing (R 0.25, Renishaw). The outcome variables were SB height, diameter, and angle of the flat face on the top (plane). All measurements were compared with the corresponding computer-assisted design library measurements used as a reference to assess the manufacturing tolerances. Statistical analyses were performed to compare the results obtained with the different SBs.

Tolerances in the manufacture of the SBs were reported in height, diameter, and plane measurements, and statistically significant differences between the different types of SBs were found. Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected. Most of the deviations and tolerances were reported in height measurements with conical connection implants.

Tolerances in the production and statistically significant differences were found among the six commercially available SBs evaluated in this study. Additional studies with larger sample sizes and other types of SBs are needed.