Modelling and impressions in implants

Abstract

Implantology has come a long way to be mainstay in routine dental rehabilitation. An extremely high level of accuracy is essential in successful surgical placement of implants and development of the prosthetic solutions which should work like or better than natural healthy teeth. An equally accurate replication of the clinical situations in a physical or virtual mode is required before and during the treatment for the planning or execution of the prosthetic phase by the laboratories. Impression making and modelling tools form a vital segment in the armamentarium of implantologists and these techniques need a high level of skill development. Multiple components specific to any implant system are provided by the manufacturers for single, multiple, and full arch implant impressions. Similarly, there are a different set of tools for digital impressions with intraoral scanning methods by dentists (in vivo) or by model scanning (in vitro) by laboratory experts. This chapter details all the techniques and critical steps essential in both modelling and impression making for accurate replications and success. Few case presentations for different scenarios too are added for better explanations.