EVALUATION OF THE USAGE PREVALENCE AND KNOWLEDGE LEVELS OF THE DENTISTS ABOUT ORAL SCANNERS AND 3D PRINTERS

Abstract

The recent study aimed to evaluate the knowledge levels of dentists on intraoral scanners and 3D printers with their usage prevalence of them in Türkiye.A link to the survey was sent via e-mail to 1782 dentists in different branches who participated in this survey, which had 27 questions in four subgroups, including demographic information, general digital dentistry, intraoral scanners, and 3D printers. The total number of dentists who answered the questionnaire was determined as 305. Considering the distribution of the ages, %21.3 (n=65) of the participants were 23-28 years, %32.1 (n=98) were 29-35 years, and %46.6 (n=142) were 36 and over years. A statistically significant difference was found in the use of intraoral scanners and 3D printers in workplaces (p<0.001, p<0.001). A statistically significant difference was found regarding branches in intraoral scanner usage. While the rate of using intraoral scanners by 54.5% of restorative dentists is higher than other branches (p<0.001), orthodontists were found to be more active users of 3D printers (47.9%, p=0.001). According to the results of our study, it has been observed that dentists generally obtain information about intraoral scanners and 3D printers through individual efforts and only a few dentists in Türkiye can integrate these devices into their everyday practices.