Digital Workflow in Orthodontics

Digital technology in orthodontics has been around in the past decades, but due to continuous improvements digital orthodontics was growing rapidly in recent years. The main reason was the introduction of digital models. Laser scanning of plaster models for application in orthodontics began to be developed in the mid-1990s.However digital models were only commercially introduced for orthodontics in 1999 with OrthoCad (Cadent, Carlstadt, New Jersey, USA) and in 2001 with the Emodels (GeoDigm Corporation, Falcon Heights, Minnesota, USA). Nowadays, several companies developed scanners for orthodontics and, due to its practicality, chairside intraoral scanners will probably replace desktop scanners. Following the evolution of the scanners, the introduction of numerous software programs allowed orthodontists to plan clinical cases with more detail or even to simulate treatment outcomes before the beginning of the orthodontic correction. After virtual setup manufacturing, digital models canbe printed by 3D printers to create proper appliances.