Get the scan right and everything downstream is easier.
Six acquisition rules. If any one of them is broken, the volume may be unusable for guide design — and you will only find out after the appointment.
The rules are not only about the guide.
A correctly acquired cone beam volume is what makes prosthetically driven planning possible. But the same rules govern whether the scan can be read accurately at all, and whether the information it carries reaches the treating clinician intact. A volume acquired badly is a diagnostic problem before it is ever a manufacturing one.
A full jaw scan, not a segmental one
The design software needs the complete arch to register the surface scan against the volume. A partial field of view cannot be used.
The patient must stay completely still
Any movement during exposure distorts the volume. A blurred reconstruction cannot be used to plan or to print.
Retract the soft tissue with cotton rolls
Displacing the cheeks and lips defines the mucobuccal fold clearly, which matters for guide extension and seating.
Use high resolution and export DICOM
A high-definition acquisition and clean DICOM export make segmentation and case analysis substantially more accurate.
Scan out of occlusion
The patient must not be biting together, or upper and lower teeth overlap in the volume and the arches cannot be separated.
Use a base plate for edentulous patients
Without remaining dentition there is no reference for registration. A radiographic base plate provides one.
Review the files before the patient leaves
Check the volume immediately after every acquisition. If any of the six rules has been broken, repeat the scan while the patient is still in the chair — it is a minute of their time now, or a lost appointment and a delayed surgery later. For case-specific advice on how a particular scan should be taken, contact us before the appointment rather than after it.
Not sure the scan will work?
Send it before you plan the surgery. We will tell you within a working day whether the volume is usable, and exactly what to change if it is not.