Thank you for your question. Invisalign treatment or any clear aligner treatment relies on an accurate dental impression in order to fabricate custom fitted plastic trays called aligners that will move teeth. PVS or polyvinyl siloxane is considered the most stable and accurate conventional impression material compared to other types of dental impression material. The iTero is an intraoral scanner that takes three-dimensional images to produce a digital dental impression. This digital impression can be sent electronically to the laboratory technicians in charge of your Invisalign treatment while a conventional impression will have to be sent via courier.
The iTero simulation, is an inbuilt software in the iTero scanner called the Invisalign Outcome simulator. The software is able to present a short movie clip on how the teeth will be shifted based on your dentist/orthodontist proposed plan.The short movie clip can be generated immediately after the scan and this can be a helpful tool to visualise how the teeth will look. Though this simulation is only a guide and may differ from the actual outcome.
In terms of accuracy of the dental impression, the PVS impression and the digital impression with iTero are on par and are both excellent for the job. There are some advantages with a digital impression using iTero, namely : quicker, turnover time for case submission is faster, immediate feedback on scan quality and the simulation offers a terrific communication tool for better visualisation.
Hope this helps.
Warm regards,
Dr Priscilla Lu
Orthodontist at the Orthodontic clinic
