Intraoral scanner
Also called: IOS, digital scanner, dental scanner
An intraoral scanner is a handheld camera that records the shape of the teeth and gums as a three-dimensional digital model. It replaces trays of impression material for many kinds of work. The scan is sent to a dental lab through the scanner maker’s cloud service, or exported as an STL or PLY file.
How it shows up between practice and lab
The scanner changes the first handoff of a case. The lab can have the scan within minutes, and can say early if something needs to be scanned again.
Each scanner maker runs its own service for sending scans. A lab whose practices use several makes receives work through several inboxes.
The scan is only part of the case. The Rx, the shade, the photos and the dates have to travel with it, or the lab is left to ask for them.
Read more in scanner cloud portals vs a shared case and STL vs PLY files.
Related terms
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