Preliminary Evaluation of a Hybrid Scan Transfer Workflow for Complex Full-Arch Implant Rehabilitations

Background/Objectives: Digital workflows have significantly improved implant prosthodontic procedures; however, full-arch and complex rehabilitations still present challenges for intraoral scanning because of cumulative stitching errors, limited anatomical landmarks, and reduced scan body stability. Methods: This article describes a single proof-of-concept clinical case in which a hybrid Scan Transfer workflow was applied to support implant position transfer during intraoral scanning through stabilization, verification, and supplementary extraoral acquisition steps. The proposed workflow was compared descriptively with a conventional scan body approach in one full-arch implant-supported rehabilitation. Digital datasets were acquired with an intraoral scanner and analyzed by curve-based superimposition to explore relative discrepancies between the two transfer methods. Results: In this individual case, the hybrid workflow showed descriptive findings suggestive of lower deviations, particularly in posterior regions, and favorable framework adaptation on the reference model. Conclusions: Because the evidence is limited to a single clinical case and no inferential statistical analysis was performed, these findings should be interpreted as preliminary and hypothesis-generating only. Further controlled in vitro and clinical studies with larger samples are required before conclusions can be drawn regarding accuracy, reliability, or clinical superiority.