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ScanBow.

A printed bow that brings the occlusal plane and the facial midline into your intraoral scan. Under €1 to print, one to two minutes at the chair, any CAD software.

Download on Thingiverse
ScanBow Easy: a one-piece printed scan bow

How it works

  1. Print

    Print ScanBow_Easy.stl on any FDM, SLA or DLP printer. FDM is the easiest: PLA, 0.16 mm layers, 2 walls, 15 % infill, no supports.

  2. Align

    Hold the bow on the patient like an occlusal plane indicator. Check from the side, from the front and from 12 o'clock, then line it up with Camper's plane and the facial midline.

  3. Scan

    The patient holds the bow. Take one extra scan of its scan surface together with the upper jaw.

  4. Match

    Import the digital twin into your CAD software and best-fit it onto the scanned surface, the same way you align a scan body. Occlusal plane and midline are now in the patient scan. Plan your bite template, set-up or mock-up along them.

The files

Rendering of the ScanBow Easy print model

Print model

ScanBow_Easy.stl, plus a ready Bambu Studio project for the P2S.

Rendering of the digital twin with the occlusal plane in red and the midline plane in blue

Digital twin

ScanBow_Easy_DigitalTwin.stl: scan surface, occlusal plane and midline plane in one file. Works in any CAD that imports STL.

All files on Thingiverse

ScanBow Easy does not replace a hinge axis transfer or a functional analysis. It gives templates, mock-ups and try-ins a reproducible starting orientation; a clinical try-in is still a must. Research prototype from Charité Berlin (Rechlin, Beuer, Korzinskas, von Stein-Lausnitz), not a certified medical device. Licence CC BY-NC 4.0: free to print and share, no commercial use.