Digital Scanning: Groundbreaking Technology for Every Dental Office

Digital dentistry has evolved and will continue to evolve with each passing moment. With so many systems, materials, and manufacturers out there, it is important to ensure you make the right decision for your practice.

At Burbank Dental Lab, our mission has been to become an asset to our clients and clinicians. To make that a reality, we consistently are looking for ways to not only ensure delivery of on-time, natural-looking cases but how to break molds within the digital dental sector. As technology evolves, we build the best solutions for our current and future clients' patient care.

When looking at a multi-unit rehabilitation case that requires the use of implant restorations, it is imperative that all prep-work, before completion, is perfectly accurate. The first prep work that is essential to ensure a precise fit is how the impression was taken.

An ill-created impression can be made through traditional methods, as well as through digital implant scanners. The ability to correct an imperfection on a case is high when caught right initially. Still, if the issue is not fixed soon enough, the master model will eventually show an inaccurate representation of the patient's mouth.

Each step taken must be taken with ease and care because each step follows the last closely. A fixed prosthesis that does not fit properly will necessitate the patient retaking impressions/scans, feeling frustrated, and feeling like their time is not valued.

The Technology

Digital Scanning & Digital Dental Technology

The iCam4d system (shown above) was designed with the patient, dentist, and lab in mind. It uses, in conjunction, photogrammetric and structured light scanning to get a beautifully created 3D image. The scan bodies that are used are unique to the product known as ICamBodies and are already built into the 3D coding.

These ICamBodies are what generate a perfect, first try position placement and orientation of the implant. They do this by replacing the ICamBodies with IMetric at consistent intervals, ensuring precision requirements are always met. With each scan, there is a 10 to 15-micron accuracy that 100% optimizes the standard of multi-unit abutments.

It is important to note that while the scanning software is elite in its own right, user error can cause issues with the final product outcome. Your initial skill level in using the iCam4d software will determine how accurate the scan is when sent to the lab. This is why it is vital to have a Burbank Dental Lab expert come to your practice and scan your patient chairside to ensure the final restoration outcome is precisely what the patient desires.

Scanning Service

To ensure that these issues happen less and less, Burbank Dental Lab offers services with the iCam4d in-office scanner. An expert implant specialist, trained in this scanning software from Burbank Dental Lab will come directly to your practice and make certain that the scans are accurately captured to ensure a high outcome in case success.

Once the scans are taken and approved, the results are sent to the dental lab with the exact location, precise angles, and distance between the implants. This process is used for more complex multi-unit cases, including large implant-supported bridges, dentures, and splinted implant cases.

We ask that you schedule with our Burbank Dental Lab technician two weeks in advance before the patient's surgical appointment to ensure one of our implant specialists can be there to take the proper scans.

Scanning Process

Once a scan is taken by a Burbank Dental Lab implant specialist using the iCam4d Scanner, it is imperative to get any pre-existing records of the patient's dentition to optimize the final restoration. This can come from an existing denture or prosthesis that the patient is relatively happy with or with a study model.

By obtaining these records, Burbank Dental Lab can better ensure the final tooth placement and determine the midline.

We recommend a surgical guide to help determine the ideal implant placement. Burbank Dental Lab's guided surgery appliances (see image below) offer a precision fit. As one of the most advanced dental labs in dental technology, we can create a guided surgical appliance through many different workflows.

Once the surgical guide is created, calling a Burbank Dental Lab implant specialist is the next step, as documented above. The current area codes Burbank Dental Lab services are 818 - 747 - 310 - 661 - 323 - 562 - 626 - 424.

The specialist will then provide the iCamBodies for placement in the implant site. This step is critical because it will measure the exact position and orientation of the implants being used. The iCamBodies will then be removed, and iCamRefs will be put in their place to ensure healing. A scan can then be taken with an intraoral scanner (shown below) and sent to the lab.

With the ever-growing world of digital dental technology, it is essential to implement and embrace all of the new advancements being made. This will not only ensure faster turnaround time for your cases, but patient satisfaction will be a large part of the digital era.

Burbank Dental Lab not only introduces these new technologies but helps in building them to their potential by taking what they have learned about dentistry over the last 40 years.

For example, the iCam4d software is revolutionizing the dental industry, and by ensuring success in using our scanning services, every case will be made to the utmost standard.

Contact Burbank Dental Lab today to schedule your next large multi-unit case.