Comparison of Patient Reported Preferences for Digital and Alginate Impression Techniques

Background: In this era of technological evolution, numerous innovations like intraoral scanners have been introduced and have changed the way of modern orthodontic practice. In patient care, it is of prime importance to understand the patient's perception, acceptance, and experiences regarding an invention. As their appraisal may or may not always be positive depending on various demographics and ethnicity. So, this study was carried out with the objectives to compare comfort experienced and reported by patients between traditional alginate and digital impression techniques as well as to generate evidence regarding patients’ perceptions & preferences in particular Indian Orthodontic patient population. Materials and method: A prospective comparative study was conducted including 138 patients reporting to department for Orthodontic treatment. Impressions were made using both the techniques; i.e. traditional (alginate) as well as digital intraoral scanning methods. TRIOS Color intraoral scan and TropicalginTM were used for digital and conventional impressions respectively. Patients were then randomly assigned using computer generated sequences for acquiring impressions by both techniques followed by recording their preferences. The data analysis was performed using SPSS software at significance level of p≤0.05. Results: The response rate for the study was quite high (93.37%). Data indicated overall preference for digital impression in the domain of overall comfort level experienced and reported by majority of patients (71.3%) during impression making procedure which was statistically significant. (p