

These factors, which include moisture (saliva, blood), movement of patient and dentist, and restricted space in the oral cavity, can also impede intraoral digitizing. Clinical parameters have the greatest impact on the quality of dental impressions

Both methods of data capture have advantages and disadvantages. An ever more widely applied alternative is intraoral digitization 7, 28, which allows practitioners to dispense with conventional impressions and gypsum model fabrication. The resulting gypsum model can be digitized extraorally Subsequently, dental stone is poured into these impressions. Conventionally, high-precision condensation-curing or addition-curing impression materials are used to make dental impressions. The CAD/CAM process chain starts with taking an impression of the clinical situation, for example, by capturing a patient’s prepared tooth or teeth. Sophisticated high-strength materials, such as zirconium oxide, which can only be processed using CAD/CAM technologies, and generative (additive) technologies, such as rapid prototyping, require digital data as the key to apply any CAD/CAM process For example, the important scanning precision in the region of the anterior incisal edges has been improved, which makes the scanning process more reliable, faster, and far more comfortable.Computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) technologies allow the use of a range of manufacturing methods and materials for dental restorations.

The new software version 4.3, presented in July 2014, fixes some minor bugs, such as the time-consuming "empty grinding" after necessary water changes during the grinding process, but also includes many features that noticeably ease the workflow. The virtual articulator (Figs 1a to 1c) now has even more individual configuration options and allows the setting of almost all angles derived from the individual transfer bow based on precalculated average values. Sirona has succeeded in making all the features introduced in version 4.2 (such as the virtual articulator or implant-supported single-tooth restorations, both monolithic and two-part designs) work with both camera types, without compromising the uniform, homogeneous look and feel of the software. The introduction of the Cerec Omnicam acquisition unit in September 2012 presented Sirona with a challenge: con- figuring the existing software version 4 for both the exist- ing Bluecam, which uses still images, and the video-based Omnicam.
