In-vitro accuracy of casts for orthodontic purposes obtained by a conventional and by a printer workflow

This in-vitro study was designed to investigate whether conventionally produced casts and printed casts for orthodontic purposes show comparable full-arch accuracy. To produce casts, either a conventional impression or a digital data set is needed. A fully dentate all ceramic master cast was digitized with an industrial scanner to obtain a digital reference cast [REF]. Intraoral scans [IOS] and alginate impressions were taken from the master cast so that ten printed and ten gypsum casts were obtained. The printed casts [DLP] were digitized by an industrial scanner and as well as the gypsum casts [GYPSUM]. The following absolute mean trueness evaluations by superimposition were accomplished: [REF vs. GYPSUM]; [REF vs. DLP]; [REF vs. IOS]; [IOS vs. DLP]. For precision analysis the data sets of [GYPSUM], [IOS] and [DLP] were available. The absolute mean trueness values were 68 μm ± 15 μm for [REF vs. GYPSUM], 46 μm ± 4 μm for [REF vs. DLP], 20 μm ± 2 μm for [REF vs. IOS] and 41 μm ± 4 μm for [IOS vs. DLP]. [REF vs. GYPSUM] and [REF vs. DLP], [REF vs. IOS], [REF vs. DLP] and [IOS vs. DLP] showed statistically significant differences. The precision values were 56 μm ± 17 μm for [GYPSUM], 25 μm ± 9 μm for [DLP] and 12 μm ± 2 μm for [IOS] and differed significantly among each other. In the present study the print workflow revealed superior results in comparison to the conventional workflow. Due to contrary deviations in the [REF vs. IOS] and the [IOS vs. DLP] data sets the overall trueness deviations was enhanced.