RESEARCH ARTICLE


Conventional Vs Digital Impressions: Acceptability, Treatment Comfort and Stress Among Young Orthodontic Patients



Alessandro Mangano1, *, Matteo Beretta2, Giuseppe Luongo3, Carlo Mangano4, Francesco Mangano5
1 Private practice, Piazza Trento 4, 22015 Gravedona ed Uniti, Como, Italy
2 Private practice, Casale Monferrato, Alessandria, Italy
3 Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Naples, Naples, Italy
4 Department of Dental Sciences, S. Raffaele University, Milan, Italy
5 Department of Surgical and Morphological Science, Dental School, University of Varese, Varese, Italy


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Creative Commons License
© 2018 Alessandro et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at The Studio Odontoiatrico Mangano, Piazza Trento 4; 22015 Gravedona ed Uniti, Como, Italy, Tel: +39-0344-85524; Fax: +39-0344-530251; E-mail: ale.mangano10@gmail.com


Abstract

Objective:

The objective of the present study was to compare patients’ acceptability, comfort and stress with conventional and digital impressions.

Materials and Methods:

Thirty young orthodontic patients (15 males and 15 females) who had no previous experience of impressions were enrolled in this study. Conventional impressions for orthodontic study models of the dental arches were taken using an alginate impression material (Hydrogum®, Zhermack Spa, Badia Polesine, Rovigo, Italy). Fifteen days later, digital impressions of both arches were acquired using an intraoral scanner (CS3600®, Carestream Dental, Rochester, NY, USA). Immediately after impression taking, patients’ acceptability, comfort and stress were measured using two questionnaires and the State anxiety scale.

Results:

Data showed no difference in terms of anxiety and stress; however, patients preferred the use of digital impressions systems instead of conventional impression techniques. Alginate impressions resulted as fast as digital impressions.

Conclusions:

Digital impressions resulted the most accepted and comfortable impression technique in young orthodontic patients, when compared to conventional techniques.

Keywords: Digital impressions, Intraoral scanners, Patients’ preferences, Treatment comfort, Comfortable impression technique, Alginate impressions.