Digital Impressions in Edentulous Patients: A Systematic Review for Clinical Evidence.

Purpose: To evaluate the accuracy, working time, and patient satisfaction of digital impressions (DI) vs conventional impressions (CI) taken for removable prostheses on edentulous arches.

Materials and methods: A systematic search of the literature was conducted in electronic databases. The English language was filtered with no limitation on publication date. The search was performed up to June 2022. Only in vivo studies comparing DI and CI techniques for the fabrication of complete removable prostheses were included. The primary outcome was accuracy (in terms of trueness and precision), working time (scanning time), and patient satisfaction of DI procedures.

Results: After title and abstract screening, six articles were considered eligible for inclusion. All articles investigated the trueness of DI, while no study evaluated the accuracy in terms of precision. The discrepancies between DI and CI were primarily in the peripheral areas. Only one article focused on the working time for scanning procedures. Patient satisfaction was surveyed in just one study. Lack of standardization of the CI procedures and sample size collection were observed in all studies.

Conclusions: The scientific evidence so far collected on IOS for complete edentulous arches is not exhaustive, in particular when dealing with scanning time and patient satisfaction. Regarding accuracy, digital scanning in edentulous patients seems to be a predictable procedure within the limits of the attached mucosa.