Lava™ Chairside Oral Scanner

With Lava COS (Chairside Oral Scanner) we can take highly accurate, digital impressions of your teeth...

In 2011 more than a dozen digital dental scanners of various types are due to be released onto the market as the digital revolution moves in on dentistry.

The 3M Lava COS is still the most sophisticated system available with 3 cameras operating simultaneously on 3 different axes recording the surfaces of the teeth at 20fps. The system is able to build a 3D model of the teeth accurate to microns in a few minutes. The model is then transferred to BRONTES in the States and a model of the teeth is built using stereolithography (SLA) [should be a video of this process]

Stereolithography is an additive manufacturing process using a vat of liquid UV-curable photopolymer "resin" and a UV laser to build parts a layer at a time. On each layer, the laser beam traces a part cross-section pattern on the surface of the liquid resin. Exposure to the UV laser light cures, solidifies the pattern traced on the resin and adheres it to the layer below.

After a pattern has been traced, the SLA's elevator platform descends by a single layer thickness, typically 0.05 mm to 0.15 mm (0.002" to 0.006"). Then, a resin-filled blade sweeps across the part cross section, re-coating it with fresh material. On this new liquid surface, the subsequent layer pattern is traced, adhering to the previous layer. A complete 3-D part is formed by this process. After building, parts are cleaned of excess resin by immersion in a chemical bath and then cured in a UV oven.

The models are then airfreighted to our laboratory in Thornbury [link] who may have already ordered the CAD-CAM zirconia cores from Edinburgh if you are having a Lava zirconia crown. Alternatively they will then embark on waxing and casting the metal cores if you are having a porcelain bonded to gold crown. In either case the Lava COS scanner enables the most accurate models to be made, ensuring your crown, bridge, inlay or onlay will fit like a glove when it comes to the fit appointment.

As dentists we are seeing crowns that fit perfectly first time, with little need for adjustments in the vast majority of cases. This must improve the survival and longevity of the tooth you have invested in compred to convenetional impressions and crowns.