The Future of Dental Crowns: How Digital Impressions Improve Your Smile

Taking physical impressions has often been most patients’ least favorite part of treatments like dental crowns. Today, traditional impressions are being largely replaced by digital impressions. This new technology offers a variety of benefits for patients and dentists alike.
Here’s what you should know about the modern process of taking impressions for dental crowns.
Traditional Impressions vs. Digital Impressions
Dental crowns and other restorative dentistry treatments often rely on impressions of your teeth to achieve effective results. Taking an impression ensures that any restoration is a perfect fit. It also helps sculpt custom crowns to match the beauty and shape of your natural smile.
Traditionally, impressions have been taken using dental putty. Trays are filled with putty, and then you have to physically bite down on the trays to create an impression of your smile. While they have been used to deliver some excellent results, physical impressions also have a few downsides.
First, people just don’t like them. The process is uncomfortable and unpleasant, especially if you get a taste of the putty. While it doesn’t take long and is preferable to going without a restored smile, people would rather avoid the experience if possible.
Physical impressions also require longer processing time. They have to be physically shipped to the dental lab that makes the dental crowns, adding days or weeks to your treatment timeline. That means more time spent with a less-than-perfect temporary crown. Digital impressions offer a solution to many of these challenges.
What are digital impressions?
Digital impressions are a modern alternative to physical impressions that do away with biting down on dental putty. Instead, the latest imaging technology is used to create a high-resolution 3D scan of your smile.
While a variety of technologies are used for 3D imaging in dental applications, intraoral scanners are the most commonly used for digital impressions. They offer the convenience, versatility, and resolution needed to create accurate and precise scans.
Your dentist will use the intraoral scanner to scan the upper and lower arches of your teeth. The scanner doesn’t make physical contact with your teeth as the dentist moves it around inside your mouth.
Accompanying software generates a rendition of your mouth in real time that is used to guide the process, ensuring that the scan captures every detail. The end result is a digital file containing a detailed 3D scan of your smile that can be used for a variety of applications.
What are the benefits of digital impressions?
You might think that there must be some kind of downside when using digital impressions, but that isn’t the case. They’re actually more accurate than physical impressions. In fact, there’s a risk of dimensional change when using physical impressions that leads to a higher error rate by the time they are used to create crowns.
You’ll also have a much more pleasant experience when you visit the dentist’s office. No more having to bite down on dental putty. Instead, you simply lay back and relax, and your dentist does all the work. The fast and comfortable process is over before you know it.
Your dentist can send the digital scan to the dental lab instantly, eliminating weeks of waiting time. You’ll still need to wait for the finished crown to arrive from the lab, but this process essentially cuts the waiting time in half so you can enjoy your fully restored smile.
Let’s improve your smile with digital crowns.
Dental crowns that are made using digital impressions offer a variety of benefits over those made with physical impressions. The digital scan can be more easily managed and manipulated during the design phase of your dental crown. The end result is a more aesthetically pleasing crown that perfectly matches your natural teeth.
The precision of digital impressions also improves the fit of the dental crown. This accuracy reduces the risk of movement, which can ultimately lead to damage and crown failure. A perfect fit improves the durability and longevity of dental crowns made with digital impressions, ensuring the long-term beauty and function of your smile.
The future holds even more exciting developments for digital impressions and other technologies. Depending on the type of crown and material, some crowns can be made in-house using milling machines that operate based on instructions generated from digital impressions.
New developments in treatment planning and smile design continue to improve based on the capabilities of digital impressions.
Get modern restorative dentistry treatment at Lake Pointe Dental Group.
If you’re in need of dental crowns or other restorative dentistry treatments, you should choose a modern dental practice that offers digital impressions. At Lake Pointe Dental Group, we implement a variety of the latest techniques and technologies to improve your treatment experience and outcome. Schedule a consultation today to discover how we can improve your smile.