Comparative Analysis of the Comfort of Children and Adolescents in Digital and Conventional Full-Arch Impression Methods: A Crossover Randomized Trial

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the comfort of children and adolescents with conventional full-arch dental impression methods compared to two intraoral scanners (iTeroTM and PrimescanTM). Methods: A monocentric, analytical, controlled crossover study was designed to compare conventional impression and digital impression with two intraoral scanners (iTeroTM and PrimescanTM) in children and teenagers. Patient comfort was evaluated using a 100 mm VAS scale adapted to Spanish and for children. A descriptive and analytical statistical method was conducted with a confidence level of 95% (p ≤ 0.05) and asymptotic or bilateral significance. Results: A total of 51 subjects were enrolled in the study (mean age = 12.35 years). Although the group of 10–14-year-olds was the most numerous, gender was equally distributed among the age groups. None of the variables on the VAS scale showed differences between the gender categories (p > 0.05). There were differences (p p < 0.05). Conclusions: The digital impression technique is superior in terms of total comfort to the conventional alginate impression in children and adolescents.

Keywords

• pediatric dentistry
• orthodontics
• patient comfort
• dental impression technique