What is a Digital Impression?

Most of us have experienced the joys of impressions. The goopy stuff that you try to not focus on so you don’t gag.  The stuff that has to sit in your mouth for a minute or 2 or 5.   This is how your dentist or surgeon re-create what’s going on in your mouth into a laboratory situation in order to help treatment plan, fabricate oral appliances and crowns.  Impressions have been around since the 1800s when bees wax was used.  In the 1900s new materials were developed to speed up the set time and improve accuracy, but since then it’s been only incremental improvements.  Thankfully, those “analog” days are now near the end, because digital impressions are here to stay.

A digital impression is essentially a very accurate scan of your teeth and gums. The scan taken is significantly more accurate than the old “anaolog” impressions, capturing detail that we just weren’t capable of a few years ago.  No  longer do you have to wiggle your toes just so you don’t gag.  No more, “can you come back so we can re-impress” days.  We know immediately if the scan we took has any deficiencies.   What may seem like a small thing is changing dentistry in big ways.  In our practice we are utilizing this technology every day.  In oral surgery, the digital scans are how we plan jaw surgery cases and then do surgery virtually before we even start.  We can scan and communicate with your restorative dentist and any lab in the world.  So not only, are we making your in office experience even better, we’re giving you your time back in the form of decreased appointments and expedited treatment times.  Come see us today and find out.