Intraoral scanner-based virtual facebow transferring: A chairside dental technique

Area of Science:

• Dentistry
• Digital Dentistry
• Prosthodontics

Background:

• Accurate dental cast mounting on articulators is crucial for prosthetics.
• Digital dentistry uses virtual facebow records for mounting.
• Current virtual facebow methods require specialized, unavailable equipment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe a simple intraoral scanner-based virtual facebow transfer technique.
• To enable virtual articulator mounting using commonly available dental tools.

Main Methods:

• Scanned and aligned a reference facebow joint support to a virtual articulator.
• Chairside scanned patient's facebow assembly with an intraoral scanner.
• Aligned patient's scans to the virtual articulator by matching features.
• Integrated patient's intraoral scans with the bite fork scan for virtual mounting.

Main Results:

• Achieved virtual mounting through a straightforward intraoral scanner-based process.
• The technique requires only an intraoral scanner and a conventional facebow.
• It can be integrated into daily clinical practice with existing facebow systems.

Conclusions:

• This technique offers an accessible method for virtual facebow transfer in dental practices.
• It simplifies virtual articulator mounting, enhancing digital prosthetic workflows.
• The approach leverages existing intraoral scanners and conventional facebows for ease of use.