An integration protocol for aligning intraoral scans to facial scans using the nasal geometry reference in a fully dentate patient.

Advanced digital technologies have rabidly been integrated into prosthodontics to improve the digital workflow for prosthetic rehabilitation. The integration of 3D datasets acquired from various imaging sources such as intraoral scanners and facial optical scanners allows the creation of virtual patients to perform presurgical simulation and prosthetic rehabilitation. The presented technique introduced a straightforward protocol for aligning intraoral scans (Trios 4, 3Shape) to optical face scans (Face Hunter, Zirkonzahn GmbH) using a global bestfit algorithm of 3D evaluation software (GOM Inspect). Nasal geometry data was used as a matching reference to produce virtual dental patients. This integration protocol proved that the intraoral scanner (Trios 4, 3Shape) was used not only to scan dental arches but also used effectively to scan the nose. These scans along with professional facial scans can be successfully aligned to produce virtual dental patients. Because only one single fully-dentate patient case with an alignment deviation of 243.6 μm was used, further research to evaluate the accuracy of this protocol is needed.