Analysis of surface curvature influence on 3D scanning accuracy of dental castings

The main goal of this study is determining the influence of surface curvature on 3D scanning accuracy of dental castings. The hypothesis is that 3D scanning errors occur on the geometry (surfaces) of a higher curvature on the dental anatomy. Ten dental castings (five mandibular and five maxillar) were 3D scanned with four different dental 3D scanners. As a reference device Atos Core industrial 3D scanner was used. Using a qualitative-quantitative approach of dividing every tooth in three areas (OS – occlusal surface, CSB – crown surface buccal side, CSP – crown surface palatal side) and observing the frequency of maximal deviation for each area a deviation map was obtained, which shows on what area, are the biggest deviations and in which frequency they emerge. In total 160 teeth were analysed. To conclude, 3D scanning errors occur more frequently on the geometry (surfaces) of a higher curvature on the dental anatomy. Future work suggests conducting a full numerical analysis to find a correlation between the accuracy of 3D scanned teeth surface and a surface curvature. Comparing the 3D scanning deviation to the calculated curvature of the surface could unveil which curvature is hard to 3D scan and generates errors.