Aim: The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of three different scanning techniques used for duplication of maxillary complete denture on the retention.
Materials and Methods: Ten completely edentulous patients who received new complete upper and lower dentures were selected. The maxillary denture was digitally duplicated using three different scanning techniques, three groups were recognized: Group 1: Duplicated maxillary denture using a desktop scanner. Group 2: Duplicated maxillary denture using a cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). Group 3: Duplicated maxillary denture using an intraoral scanner. The data were then sent to the 3D printer for digital manufacturing of the prostheses. Retention force was measured, the measurements were repeated 5 times at 5 minutes intervals for each denture base and the average value was recorded.
Results: The calculated mean of retention of printed dentures obtained from STL files of the desktop scanner was (45.40), when compared to the mean of retention of printed dentures obtained from STL files of CBCT (38.10) and the mean of retention of printed dentures obtained from the STL files of IOS (32.10), significant difference between the groups where (p < 0.001). There was statistically significant difference in the retention (P=0.002) between the desktop scanner and CBCT, (P < 0.001) between the desktop scanner and IOS and (P <0.001) between CBCT and IOS.
Conclusion: Digital duplication of complete denture using the desktop scanner yielded the most retentive denture followed by using the CBCT and the least retentive denture was that made using the IOS.