Purushotam Kumar, G.S. Chandu, Siddharth Gupta, Ajay Pandey, Archana, Raj Jain

ABSTRACT

Aim: Dentistry can be dated back to eighteenth century, when impressions meant use of waxes and plaster of Paris and the dental equipment consisted of hand driven and later water driven motors. From then there’s been a long journey to achieve the contemporary paraphernalia. Along with limited materials and equipment there were selective treatment options but, with the passing years and the endless growth in research, emerged a gamut of options in dentistry. Digitilization started to influence dental fraternity with the form of audio-visual aids in both teaching and patient education. It was in 1980s that advances in computerisation, optics, miniaturisation and laser technologies enabled capture of dental impressions. Dental impressions are an important step in restorative dentistry. Extensive conventional impression making and cast pouring procedures may lead to distortions. To overcome these deficiencies researchers have used the CAD/CAM technologies to develop intra oral scanners to make 3D virtual impressions without time lapse and of high accuracy known as the digital impressions