Comparison of accuracy of mesiodistal tooth measurements made in conventional study models and digital models obtained from intraoral scan and desktop scan of study models.

Objective: To compare the measured values obtained from the plaster model, digital models created by scanning the plaster models and direct intraoral scanning with the values obtained from direct intraoral measurements.

Design: This was a prospective clinical study.

Setting: The study was conducted in Department of Orthodontics, Saveetha Dental College and Hospital, Tamil Nadu, India.

Participants: Ten patients before the start of orthodontic treatment were selected for the study.

Methods: A computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD-CAM) system is an advanced technology that is being adopted in the field of orthodontics for diagnosis, treatment planning and documentation of patient records. Mesiodistal tooth width measurements of first premolars, canines, lateral incisors and central incisors, and transverse width measurement from mesial pit of right first premolar to mesial pit of left first premolar in both maxilla and mandible were obtained from direct intraoral measurement (gold standard), study model obtained from alginate impression, intraoral scanned image, and desktop scanned image of the study model. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA was performed to find the difference in mean among the groups.

Results: A value > 0.05 was obtained in ANOVA indicating that there is no statistically significant difference in the measurements obtained by either of the methods.

Conclusion: Conventional stone models and digital models obtained from intraoral scan and desktop scanning of plaster models are clinically reliable as the variations in measurements obtained from these methods were clinically negligible.