Working with Maple Ridge dental practices.
For a practice at some distance from its laboratory, the strongest argument for intraoral scanning is not clinical. It is that a scan removes the outbound journey from every case that uses it.
What scanning actually removes
A digital record eliminates a chain of error unrelated to clinical technique: material distortion on removal, tray flex, dimensional change during disinfection, delay before pouring, bubbles in the stone and setting expansion of the model material.
It also removes the outbound transit entirely. A file arrives at the laboratory the moment it is captured, and design work can begin the same day rather than after a courier cycle.
For a practice where physical case movement carries any friction, that second benefit is frequently the larger one.
What it does not remove
Everything clinical. A scan still requires a margin that is visible, dry and free of tissue at the moment of capture. It still requires haemostasis, an accurate interocclusal relationship and a complete opposing arch.
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 scanner changes what happens after the margin is exposed, not the need to expose it.
The learning period is real
Scanning is a motor skill, and the first several weeks produce slower appointments, inconsistent quality and more laboratory queries. This is normal and it is the part most often underestimated when the decision is made.
Practices that push through it and standardize a capture protocol get past it. Practices that scan occasionally and revert to impressions whenever a case looks difficult tend to stay permanently at the beginning of the curve.
If you are adopting, commit to a defined category of cases and do all of them digitally for a period. Sending better digital cases sets out a capture and review routine.
Where conventional impressions still win
Deep subgingival margins are the clearest case. Impression material under adequate retraction physically displaces tissue and flows into the sulcus, recording what the eye cannot see. A scanner records only what is optically visible.
Long spans and full-arch work are the second area, because stitching error accumulates along the scan path. Edentulous impressions remain a conventional strength, since mucosal tissue is displaceable and featureless — the two things optical scanning handles least well.
None of this argues against scanning. It argues for choosing per case and keeping both options available.
Review the scan before it leaves
Almost every scan problem that reaches a laboratory was visible on screen at the chair. Rotate the model, inspect the margin around its full circumference, check the insertion axis rather than accepting the default view, and look for holes interproximally and behind the most posterior unit.
Two minutes of review is the highest-yield step in the whole digital workflow, and it matters more at distance because a query raised after the appointment cannot be resolved by bringing the patient back easily.
Archived scans have a practical use later
A digital record persists. It can be revisited, re-sent and reused, which changes what happens when something goes wrong months afterwards.
If a restoration fractures a year on and the preparation is genuinely unchanged, a replacement can frequently be produced from the original scan without bringing the patient back for a fresh record. For a practice where attendance takes effort, that is a real benefit.
The caveats matter: re-preparation, margin refinement, recession or drift of adjacent teeth all mean the archived file no longer describes the situation. Ask what the retention arrangement is before relying on it.
Cases still travel one way
The finished restoration comes back physically, and any intermediate stage travels in both directions. Cases move by UPS and Purolator, and Fairmont works with practices throughout British Columbia and across Canada.
Knowing the pattern for your address and booking seat appointments against it rather than against an estimate removes most of the remaining friction.
A practice in Maple Ridge
We appreciate Fairmont’s combination of modern digital workflows and traditional craftsmanship. They communicate well, adapt to our needs and consistently produce restorations that require minimal chairside adjustment.