Abstract
Alginate impressions have been used to fabricate palatal plates and Hotz’ plates for presurgical infant orthopedics （PIO） of cleft lip and/or palate （CLP） patients. However, general care of the whole body is essential in CLP infants since there is a severe risk of vomiting and aspiration while taking an impression. Recently, optical impression has become popular and we have used intraoral scanners in PIO. However, all commercially available intraoral scanners are developed for dentulous cases but not for edentulous infant cases with a large amount of saliva and body movement during scanning. To realize more efficient scanning, we thought it was necessary to obtain basic information, and so we examined the effect of various conditions on the time and accuracy of scanning.
In this study, a resin cast model of a 40-day-old cleft lip and palate infant （sizes of alveolar and palate clefts were 3.0 and 11.5mm, respectively） was used. Optical scanning was carried out by using an intraoral scanner with a small wand. During the scanning, the following effects were examined: 1） wetness of cast model surface, 2） three-dimensional moving of the cast model, and 3） application of landmark on the alveolar cleft.
The wetness and movement of the cast model did not have any effect on accuracy but significantly prolonged the scanning time. In contrast, the application of the landmark on the alveolar cleft significantly reduced the scanning time without affecting accuracy.
These findings suggest that application of the landmark on the alveolar cleft is effective in oral scanning of CLP infants, and it is important to manage saliva and body movement of infants during scanning.
