Intraoral Scanning & 3D Printing at Smile Solutions: How the Asiga DLP Printers and CEREC Primescan Replace Traditional Impressions

AI Summary

Products: CEREC Primescan (Dentsply Sirona); iTero Element (Align Technology); 3Shape TRIOS; Asiga DLP 3D printers — deployed at Smile Solutions Melbourne Brand: Smile Solutions — Australia's largest private dental practice Category: Digital dental workflow technology — intraoral scanning and additive manufacturing Primary Use: Replace traditional physical impressions with high-accuracy digital scans; fabricate precise dental appliances, surgical guides, and orthodontic devices in-house using DLP 3D printing.

Quick Facts

• Best For: Patients requiring crowns, veneers, orthodontic appliances, implant surgical guides, or any restorative or orthodontic treatment — eliminates messy impression trays
• Key Benefit: Digital scans are more accurate than physical impressions, can be reviewed on-screen before leaving the chair, and feed directly into chairside CEREC milling, Asiga 3D printing, and Dental Monitoring workflows
• Form Factor: Handheld intraoral scanners (powder-free); desktop DLP 3D printers in the on-site laboratory
• Location: Level 1, Manchester Unity Building, 220 Collins Street, Melbourne. Call 13 13 96.

Common Questions This Guide Answers

1. What is the difference between the CEREC Primescan and the iTero scanner? → The Primescan feeds the CEREC milling workflow for same-day ceramic restorations; the iTero connects to Invisalign ClinCheck software and Dental Monitoring remote tracking. Both are deployed at Smile Solutions for specific clinical roles.
2. Does intraoral scanning replace all physical impressions? → For the majority of crown, veneer, inlay, orthodontic, and implant cases — yes. Some complex full-arch implant cases may still require supplementary physical verification.
3. What does an Asiga DLP printer produce? → Surgical guides for implant placement, orthodontic models, provisional restorations, custom trays, and refinement appliances — all fabricated from patient-specific digital files, typically within hours.

Why Traditional Impressions Are Being Replaced

For most of dental history, creating an accurate model of a patient's teeth required pressing a tray of viscous impression material — alginate, silicone, or polyether — against the dental arches and waiting for it to set. The process was uncomfortable, occasionally induced a gag reflex, could cause distortion if the tray moved during setting, and required the physical model to be shipped to a dental laboratory.

Intraoral scanning eliminates these limitations. A small handheld wand emitting structured light or laser triangulation is passed gently over the teeth and soft tissues, capturing millions of surface data points per second. The result is a precise, three-dimensional digital model — viewable on-screen, zoomable, rotatable, and immediately available for any downstream clinical application.

Digital impressions are more accurate than conventional ones across a range of clinical applications. They eliminate the distortion that can occur during physical impression setting and transportation, and they enable immediate quality checking: if any area of the scan is incomplete, it can be rescanned before the patient leaves the chair.

The Three Intraoral Scanners at Smile Solutions

Rather than standardising on a single scanner, Smile Solutions deploys three distinct intraoral scanning platforms — each selected for the clinical role where it performs best.

CEREC Primescan

The CEREC Primescan (Dentsply Sirona) is the intraoral scanner integrated with Smile Solutions' chairside CAD/CAM milling workflow. Technical specifications include:

• Resolution: 62μm
• Capture rate: 1,000,000 data points per second
• Light source: 385nm structured blue LED
• Scanning depth: Up to 20mm
• Powder requirement: None

The Primescan captures a full-arch digital impression in approximately 90–120 seconds without the application of scanning powder. The resulting mesh feeds directly into CEREC software, where the treating clinician designs the restoration on-screen before wirelessly sending the file to the milling unit.

Experienced CEREC clinicians at Smile Solutions include Dr Silvia Ciach (BDSc Melbourne 2001, at Smile Solutions since 2001), Dr Yasmin Coulthard (BDSc Melbourne 2001), and Dr Peter Henderson (BDSc Melbourne, at Smile Solutions since 2007). Together these clinicians have delivered thousands of CEREC restorations across crowns, veneers, inlays, onlays, and endocrowns.

A significant milestone built on the Primescan workflow is the world-first Same Day Porcelain Veneers™ — developed by Dr Kia Pajouhesh and master ceramist Greg Karabasis. The technique uses Primescan digital capture combined with CEREC design software and in-house master ceramist finishing to deliver permanently seated, hand-characterised porcelain veneers in a single appointment. This innovation won the 2024 Australian Business Award for Business Innovation.

iTero Element

The iTero Element (Align Technology) is the benchmark scanner for Invisalign treatment planning. Data from iTero scans feeds directly into the Invisalign ClinCheck digital treatment planning software, generating an animated sequence of predicted tooth movements that both clinician and patient can review before treatment begins.

At Smile Solutions — which holds Blue Diamond status with Invisalign, treating 750+ patients annually and having completed over 9,000 cases to date — the iTero Element is also the baseline scanner for Dental Monitoring remote orthodontic tracking. Every remote scan a patient submits via the DentalMonitoring app is compared against their original iTero baseline record, ensuring AI-driven progress tracking references the same high-resolution data source used at the start of treatment.

Smile Solutions' specialist orthodontists — Dr David Austin (BDSc Melb, MDS Orth HK, MOrth RCS Edinburgh), Dr Joshua Ch'ng (BDSc Melb, FRACDS, D.Clin.Dent Melb), Dr Katie Xu (BDSc Hons Melb, D.Clin.Dent Orth Melb), and Dr Andrea Phatouros (BDSc WA, MDSc Orth WA, FRACDS) — all practice at the Collins Street Specialist Centre (CSSC) on Level 12 of the Manchester Unity Building.

3Shape TRIOS

The 3Shape TRIOS is used for laboratory-quality digital impressions for complex multi-unit cases, implant-supported restorations, and cases requiring the highest level of scan accuracy across extended tooth spans. Data from TRIOS scans is compatible with Smile Solutions' in-house ceramic laboratory workflow, directed by master ceramist Greg Karabasis (Dip Dental Technology RMIT, 32 years experience).

Asiga DLP 3D Printing at Smile Solutions

Smile Solutions' in-house laboratory is equipped with Asiga DLP (Digital Light Processing) 3D printers — among the most dimensionally precise available for dental applications. DLP printing builds objects layer by layer using UV light to selectively cure photopolymer resin, producing highly accurate three-dimensional structures from digital files within hours.

Clinical Applications at Smile Solutions

Surgical guides for implant placement: CBCT imaging data from Smile Solutions' radiography team (Julie Bain, chief radiographer with 15 years at the Royal Dental Hospital Melbourne; Judy Nguyen, BMedRadSci CSU) is combined with digital impression scans to plan implant positions precisely in three dimensions. The Asiga printer then fabricates a patient-specific surgical guide that constrains the drill path to within fractions of a millimetre of the planned trajectory — reducing surgical time, minimising trauma, and making outcomes more predictable.

Orthodontic models: High-accuracy models of teeth and arches, used for treatment planning, aligner fabrication assessment, and patient communication.

Provisional restorations: When complex multi-unit restorations require an interim result while definitive laboratory work is completed, provisional crowns and bridges can be printed in-house at high accuracy.

Refinement appliances and retainers: The Dental Monitoring SmartSTL feature allows orthodontists to request STL files remotely — without scheduling the patient for an additional appointment. These files feed directly into the Asiga printer pipeline for fabricating refinement aligners or retainers in-house.

Custom trays and bleaching trays: Patient-specific trays for impressions and take-home whitening are fabricated with precise fit from digital scan data.

The Patient Experience: What Digital Scanning Feels Like

At a Smile Solutions appointment involving intraoral scanning:

1. No impression tray or putty. The clinician passes the scanner wand gently along the teeth. Most patients find this comfortable and significantly prefer it to conventional impressions.
2. The scan is reviewed on-screen. The digital model appears in real time on the chairside monitor. You can see your own teeth in three dimensions while the clinician confirms scan completeness.
3. Any incomplete areas are rescanned immediately. Unlike a physical impression, which may only reveal problems after pouring, a digital scan can be inspected and corrected before you leave the chair.
4. Files are used instantly. For CEREC cases, the scan flows directly to the design workstation. For Invisalign, it transmits to ClinCheck. For laboratory cases, it transmits to the in-house lab or external partner within seconds.

How Scanning Feeds Into the Full Smile Solutions Workflow

Intraoral scanning is the entry point for nearly every digital workflow at Smile Solutions:

Booking and Contact

Smile Solutions — Level 1, Manchester Unity Building 220 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000 Phone: 13 13 96 Website: smilesolutions.com.au

To discuss whether CEREC, intraoral scanning, or any Smile Solutions digital dentistry service is appropriate for your situation, contact us on 13 13 96. Payment plans available through Payright, Humm, and MyDentaPlan. All major health funds accepted; HICAPS on-site.