Research
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Photogrammetry Beats Intraoral Scanning on Full-Arch Precision—But a June 10, 2026 Clinical Study Shows the Workflow Tradeoff Clearly
A 2026 clinical study comparing intraoral scanning, dental photogrammetry, and conventional impressions in edentulous implant cases found that photogrammetry delivered the best precision, while intraoral scanning remained the fastest and one of the most patient-friendly options.
NikolasBase by Edison Medical Wants to Solve One of Digital Full-Arch’s Most Persistent Problems: Passive Fit
Most new product launches in digital implant prosthetics promise speed, simplicity, or broader compatibility. NikolasBase by Edison Medical is taking a different route. Its pitch is not really about faster design or prettier software screens. It is about something far more important in full-arch and multi-unit work: passive fit. That makes it interesting. According to…
Edentulous Intraoral Scanning Is Growing Up—But the Real Breakthrough Is Better Reference Control
Edentulous intraoral scanning has always been a test of control rather than a test of raw scanner speed. That distinction matters. In dentate cases, scanners can rely on teeth as stable landmarks. In edentulous arches, those landmarks disappear. What remains is mobile soft tissue, long spans, repetitive anatomy, and a much greater risk that small…
RobOralScan Teaches a Robot to Perform Intraoral Scans—But 8 of 10 Simulated Successes Are Not Clinical Autonomy
Standfirst: A new reinforcement-learning system chooses scanner movements from a growing three-dimensional memory of the dental arch. RobOralScan reached 92.58% average coverage and completed 8 of 10 evaluation episodes, then transferred to a physical robot without additional training. The work is a robotics preprint, however—not a patient study or a market-ready dental device. Researchers have…
TruAbutment T-Marker Puts Full-Arch Photogrammetry on an iPad—Does a 49-µm Pilot Study Change the Cost Equation?
Standfirst: T-Marker uses coded scan bodies, an iPad Pro or recent iPhone Pro and a subscription app to record multi-unit abutment positions. A new one-patient clinical study reported lower linear and angular discrepancies than an intraoral-scanner workflow, but it did not test prosthesis fit, long-term outcomes or performance across varied arches. TruAbutment’s T-Marker attempts to…
exocad PartialCAD 3.3 Automates Split-Denture Design—But Speed Is Not the Same as Passive Fit
exocad has released PartialCAD 3.3 Chemnitz with a highly automated “split denture” workflow for implant-supported full-arch restorations. The software lets a technician design an implant-based suprastructure in DentalCAD and generate a matching underlying bar in PartialCAD. The two components can then be adjusted and manufactured separately. That separation is clinically and commercially interesting. A bar…