Accuracy of Virtual Static Articulation: A Systematic Review

To evaluate the accuracy of virtual static articulation and to determine factors that affect its accuracy.

An electronic search up to December 21, 2020 was carried out in the PubMed, Cochrane, and EMBASE databases, and further searching was performed in the references of the evaluated articles. Studies were included if they were published in a peer-reviewed journal in English, were a clinical or laboratory study assessing only static virtual articulation accuracy without making computer-aided manufacturing restorations, used intraoral scanner (IOS) or extraoral scanner (EOS) systems, and evaluated tooth or implant cases.

After applying the inclusion criteria, a total of 28 studies were analyzed. Nine were clinical, and 19 were laboratory. Most of the studies indicated that virtual static articulation had a comparable accuracy to conventional methods in the presence of completely dentate arches, stable occlusal contacts, a single prepared tooth, or arches involving a single missing posterior tooth. The factors that appeared to influence the accuracy were the articulation technique, number, dimension, and location of virtual interocclusal records (VIRs), the length of articulated scans, and the position and size of edentulous areas.

Though conclusions were derived mainly from laboratory studies, static VIR had an acceptable accuracy in the presence of certain situations.