Sending a digital case.
Most digital cases that stall do so for one of a small number of avoidable reasons. A consistent routine removes nearly all of them.
Control the field before you start
Retraction and haemostasis first, exactly as for an impression. The margin should be visible, dry and clear of tissue before capture begins, not something you work around during the scan.
A scanner cannot see through blood, saliva or pooled sulcular fluid. Where the margin is obscured, the software bridges the gap with a plausible surface — smooth, continuous and wrong. That is the crucial difference from an impression, where a fluid-filled margin at least announces itself as a void.
If the field will not stay dry long enough, that is information rather than an obstacle. The case may want a conventional impression.
Scan to a consistent path
A repeatable sequence matters more than speed. Run the occlusal surfaces first to establish the arch, then return along the lingual and buccal, keeping the scanner moving steadily rather than hovering or jumping between regions.
Jumping introduces alignment work the software does not need to do. Hovering produces layered, noisy data in a region already captured adequately.
Capture the adjacent teeth in full and enough of the arch beyond them for the bite alignment to have something substantial to work with.
Verify the bite deliberately
Confirm the patient is fully closed in maximum intercuspation before capturing the buccal bite, and capture it on both sides. Then check the resulting occlusal contacts in the software rather than assuming.
The software has no way of knowing whether the patient was genuinely closed. A bite recorded on a patient slightly propped, or who drifted between the left and right captures, produces a mounting that is wrong in a way nothing reveals until try-in.
Review before you send
Rotate the model. Look directly at the margin around its full circumference. Check the insertion axis rather than accepting the default view. Look for holes, particularly interproximally and at the distal of the most posterior unit.
If the software allows margin marking and you are confident of the finish line, mark it — you can see the tooth and we cannot.
Do not delete data that looks untidy but is real. Excess soft tissue in a scan is harmless; a trimmed-away margin is not.
Check the case setup, not just the scan
A proportion of digital cases arrive technically perfect and functionally wrong because of how the case was created in the software: wrong restoration type, wrong tooth number, a material selected in the software that does not match the written prescription, or default settings left in place.
Where the software prescription and the written prescription disagree, we have to stop and ask which is correct. Reading the setup back once before sending catches it.
Send the context with the file
Material, shade with the guide named, margin type, antagonist, and anything unusual. Photographs for anterior and shade-critical work. For implant cases, the system, product line, platform and connection, and the intended retention.
Cases reach us through MyiTero, 3Shape Communicate or the equivalent portal for your system, or as exported files. See connecting your scanner.
Trademarks
iTero is a trademark of Align Technology, Inc. TRIOS and 3Shape Communicate are trademarks of 3Shape A/S. Medit is a trademark of Medit Corp. CEREC and Primescan are trademarks of Dentsply Sirona. Carestream is a trademark of Carestream Dental LLC. Scanner names are used solely to indicate file compatibility.
More in Digital Dentistry
Send a case
Digital scans and conventional impressions are both accepted. Cases move by UPS and Purolator, and Fairmont works with practices throughout British Columbia and across Canada.