Journal of Prosthodontic Research

cial Journal of Japan Prosthodontic Society

Original article
Evaluation of implant-supported connecting crowns fabricated by optical and
conventional impression methods
Masahito Yokosukaa, Mitsunobu Okamurab, Hiroshi Shimizub, Shin-ichi Masumia,*
a
Division of Occlusion and Maxillofacial Reconstruction, Department of Oral Function, Kyushu Dental University, Fukuoka, Japan
b
Division of Biomaterials, Department of Oral Function, Kyushu Dental University, Fukuoka, Japan

Abstract
Purpose:
Methods:

amount of lift of the incisal pin, each of the 10 superstructures was fabricated via computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing and then returned to

Results:

Conclusions:

Keywords: Optical impression method, Conventional impression method, Implant-supported connecting crowns, Amount of lift

26 January 2021

1. Introduction

Innovations in dentistry using digital technology, such as digital

dentistry, are not only improving dental technology but also fundamentally

for inlays and bridges that use optical impression but also have attracted
considerable attention owing to their application to implant-supported to the impression coping taken into the impression body to make a
superstructures and removable dentures using computer-aided design/
but the impression coping must be separated from the impression body
once and then repositioned in the impression body, which may cause an
The introduction of digital dentistry facilitates the saving and reuse of
data, which has been impossible with direct methods, as well as the design

closed-tray approaches, but for four or more implants, the impressions

method has strengths and weaknesses, and the dentist should select the

the reproducibility of occlusion-related aspects such as occlusal surfaces

and specifically occlusal contact points is superior to that of prostheses obtained with the conventional indirect method cannot be achieved ,

Department of Oral Function, School of Dentistry, Kyushu Dental University 2-6-1

superstructure and the optical impression method, there are reports on

462 M. Yokosuka et al. / journal of prosthodontic research 65 (2021) 461–466

implant-supported connecting crowns applied to cases of mandibular

conventional methods and optical impression methods in such cases are

The superstructure fabricated using the conventional method was

supported single crown [10, 12–14], but there is no simple evaluation

In this study, the angles and distance between the two implant

fabricated using digital and conventional definitive casts was evaluated Fig. 1.
by measuring the amount of lift of the incisal pin of the articulator that

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Fabrication of the master model

®
, Shioda Dental,

molars of the mandibular model were removed, and two implant bodies
®

model vertically against the basal plane of the model to create the master

was fastened to the implant body of the lower first molar, and a conical

Fig. 2.

®
Fig. 3.

® ®
 M. Yokosuka et al. / journal of prosthodontic research 65 (2021) 461–466 463

Fig. 4.

®
Fig. 5.

®
2.4. Fabrication of superstructures
to analyze the distance between the two central points on the top surface
For the optical impression method, implant-supported connecting
crowns were designed on the display that drew digitally mounted

®
Scan E3, master model were taken as the master data, and the angle and distance
of the two implant abutments were compared for the optical and
mounted on the articulator, and 10 superstructures were fabricated in
®
2.6. Measurement of the amount of lift of the incisal pin of the
articulator

For the optical impression method, the fabricated connecting crowns

were returned to the master model, the articulator was closed with a
®
2.5. Measurement of angle and distance between implant abutments ,

For the conventional impression method, the fabricated connecting

12M®
464 M. Yokosuka et al. / journal of prosthodontic research 65 (2021) 461–466

Fig. 8. Measurement of the amount of lift of the incisal pin using the thickness

Fig. 6.

between OM and CD and between OM and CM were performed using the

in the conventional method, the dentist attempts to fit the fabricated

3. Results

3.1. Angle and distance between implant abutments

impression method and the conventional impression method, the distance

between the two abutments was slightly larger than the master data
Fig. 7. Measurement of angle and distance between the two abutments of each
®

molar
basal plane of the cast and the line segment connecting the two points was

3.2. Amount of lift of incisal pin of the articulator

the incisal pin was measured in the same manner as the optical impression

superstructures until the lift of the incisal pin of the articulator was

2.7. Statistical processing

The distances between the implant abutments and the angle for both sets 4. Discussion

The amount of lift of the incisal pin of the articulator was compared There are numerous reports on the trueness and precision of intraoral
among a superstructure fabricated using the optical method and returned to scanners [16–23], and the trueness and precision have improved with
®
, Cadent iTero® ®
, and E4D® for
 M. Yokosuka et al. / journal of prosthodontic research 65 (2021) 461–466 465

®
, CS3600® ®
, Dental Wings®, and
Omnicam®, for implant-supported three-unit bridges and reported their

® ®
, Dental Wings ®
Trios3® ®

®
intraoral scanner was

®
was used to analyze the distance
Fig. 9. between the central points on top of the two implant abutments or the
angle between the basal plane of the cast and the line segment connecting

precision was affected by errors such as the curing shrinkage of the

optical scanning of the definitive casts, which was done to fabricate the

and reproducibility of impressions obtained through an intraoral scanner

digital casts fabricated using the optical impression obtained through

®

Fig. 10.

surfaces, such as silicone or plaster, but as with optical registration,

The same methods were used for fabricating the superstructures, and the

it is considered that the reason why the amount of lift of the incisal pin

Fig. 11.
OM: Optical superstructure on the master model registration is performed automatically by the software, using data on the

appropriate, registration is completed by the software with the occlusal

466 M. Yokosuka et al. / journal of prosthodontic research 65 (2021) 461–466

fabricated via optical methods using virtual articulators is very good , but
these reports are related to implant-supported single crowns, and there are

The results indicated that OM had a significantly higher accuracy than

method is fully applicable to implant-supported single crowns but still has

methods, and the amount of lift of the incisal pin is larger for the optical of all-ceramic crowns fabricated from intraoral digital impressions based on the

crowns generated from digital intraoral impressions based on active wavefront

occlusal contacts of stereolithographic casts mounted by digital interocclusal

5. Limitation

according to the amount of lift of the incisal pin, but this is a vertical
evaluation of the superstructure, and the horizontal deviation cannot be

6. Conclusion Trueness and precision of 5 intraoral scanners in the impressions of single and

connecting crowns fabricated using the optical impression method and the

the incisal pin in the master model than those fabricated using the optical

Declaration of Competing Interest

References

of all-ceramic crowns fabricated from intraoral digital impressions based on the