Scanners we accept.
Send the case from whichever system your operatory runs. Fairmont accepts files from every mainstream intraoral scanner, and conventional impressions remain as welcome as they have been since 1988.
iTero
Fairmont holds preferred laboratory designation from Align Technology for iTero. Cases transfer through the MyiTero portal — the practice selects Fairmont as the receiving laboratory and the case is delivered directly, with no export or file handling at the practice end.
That direct transfer is the simplest route available to a practice and it removes an entire class of error: no exporting to a folder, no attaching files to an email, no wondering whether the right file went.
If your practice runs iTero and has not yet set Fairmont up as a receiving laboratory, it takes one call to arrange.
3Shape TRIOS
TRIOS cases reach the laboratory through 3Shape Communicate, which works the same way — the practice sends the case to the laboratory's connected account and it arrives ready to open.
TRIOS also exports open STL and DCM files where a practice prefers to handle the file directly, which is useful for archiving locally or for sending a case to more than one destination.
Either route works. The portal is quicker and leaves less room for the wrong file being sent.
Other platforms
Medit scanners export open STL, and cases transfer either through the manufacturer's own case-sharing service or as exported files.
Primescan and CEREC produce cases that can be sent through Dentsply Sirona's Connect portal or exported. Carestream systems export open files conventionally.
Any scanner capable of exporting open STL can be used, which in practice means all of them. If your system is not named here, it is still almost certainly workable — call and we will confirm.
Conventional impressions
Nothing about accepting digital cases reduces our interest in conventional ones. A deeply subgingival margin that cannot be exposed optically, an edentulous impression, or a long span where stitching error accumulates are all situations where an impression is the better record.
Send whichever you have taken well. A good impression beats a compromised scan, and the reverse holds equally.
What we need alongside the file
The file is geometry. What makes it a case is the prescription — material, shade with the guide named, margin type, antagonist, and anything unusual.
For implant cases, add the system, product line, platform and connection, and state whether screw or cement retention is intended. For anterior work, add photographs.
See sending a digital case for the full submission routine.
What a scanner does not change
Whichever platform you run, the clinical requirements are identical. The margin has to be visible, dry and clear of tissue at the moment of capture. Haemostasis has to be achieved first. The opposing arch has to be complete and the bite accurate.
Practices that struggle with impressions usually struggle with scans for the same underlying reason, because the limiting factor was tissue management rather than the recording medium.
The differences between platforms — capture speed, colour, software feel — matter to the operator far more than they matter to the restoration.
Where each still has limits
No optical system records what it cannot see. A margin two millimetres subgingival with tissue collapsed over it is not captured by any scanner, however capable, and an impression under adequate retraction will record it.
Long spans and full arches accumulate stitching error on every platform, which is why verification steps persist in multi-unit implant workflows rather than having been designed away.
Highly reflective surfaces — polished metal restorations, amalgam — scatter light in ways that produce noise or displaced geometry around them. Review those regions specifically rather than trusting a scan that looks complete.
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.