Intaglio surface trueness of dentures bases fabricated with 3D printing vs. conventional workflow: a clinical study.

ABSTRACT

The latest generation of intraoral scanners can record the prosthetic field with relative ease, high accuracy and comfort for the patient, and have enabled fully digital protocols for designing and manufacturing complete dentures. The present study aims to examine the intaglio surface trueness of 3D printed maxillary dentures produced by fully digital workflow in comparison with dentures produced by analogue clinical and laboratory prosthetic workflow. The edentulous maxillary arch of 15 patients was scanned with an intraoral scanner as well as the intaglio of the delivered conventional denture. The scan of the edentulous arch was imported into a dental design software to produce the denture base which was then 3D printed. The intaglio surface of the finished 3D printed denture bases was digitized and used to assess the trueness of the printed denture bases compared to the intaglio surface of the conventional dentures as well as performing a trueness comparison in relation to the scanned edentulous arches. The dataset (n = 30) was subjected to Kruskal-Wallis test analysis, the significance level being established at α = 0.05. The results of the study showed that the printed group displayed better trueness values with a median of 176.9 µm while the analogue group showed a median of 342 µm. Employing a fully digital workflow to produce 3D-printed denture bases yields a consistent and precise manufacturing method when accounting for the intaglio surface of the denture.