Tuesday, June 16, 2026 — Frangella Dental
If you’ve been to a dentist in the last twenty years and needed a crown, a retainer, or an Invisalign workup, you probably remember the goop. Trays of cold blue or pink impression material pushed into your mouth for two minutes while you tried not to gag, breathing through your nose, counting the seconds. It worked — but it was unpleasant, slightly inaccurate, and slow.
We retired that process years ago. We use an iTero intraoral scanner for every Invisalign workup, every crown, and most of our lab work. Here’s what that means for you.
What iTero Actually Is
iTero is a wand-style 3D scanner about the size of a small flashlight, connected to a cart with a monitor at chairside. It’s made by Align Technology — the same company behind Invisalign. The wand uses a tiny camera and a structured-light system to capture thousands of frames per second of your teeth and gums and stitches them into a precise 3D model in real time. You can watch the model build itself on the screen as we scan.
The whole thing takes between two and four minutes for a full-mouth scan. There’s no goop, no trays, no gag reflex management, no waiting for material to set.
Why It Matters for Invisalign
Invisalign cases used to live and die on the quality of the initial impression. A slightly distorted tray meant the aligners didn’t fit quite right, treatment took longer, and we had to do mid-course corrections.
With iTero, we capture your exact starting position digitally and send it directly to Align. Within about an hour we get back a 3D treatment plan showing every aligner tray, every tooth movement, and the projected final result — which we can show you on the screen at your consult. You see your projected smile before you commit. We can also model “what if we treated only the front six teeth” vs. “full arch” so you can see the trade-off in real time.
Same scanner, same data, used at every aligner check-in. We compare your actual movement to the plan visit by visit. If something’s tracking slightly off, we know within a visit — not weeks later.
Crowns and Restorations
For crowns, bridges, and inlays, the scan replaces the impression entirely. We send the digital file to our dental lab — same day, sometimes same hour. The lab mills or 3D-prints the restoration from the scan, which means:
A much tighter fit at the margins. The 3D model is more accurate than a physical impression because there’s no material distortion.
Faster turnaround. Most crowns come back in 7 to 10 days instead of two to three weeks.
Fewer remakes. The lab sees exactly what we see, and edge cases get flagged before they become problems.
If you remember the temporary crown that fell off twice while you waited for the permanent, this is the technology that ended that era.
Other Lab Work
We use the same scanner for night guards, retainers, post-orthodontic retention, and bite splints. Anything that used to require an impression now starts with a scan. The lab work fits better because the starting data is better.
What This Means for Your Visit
Three small things you’ll notice:
The scan itself is quick and comfortable. You sit upright, the wand moves around your mouth, and we can pause and resume at any time.
You see your own teeth on the screen. We use the model to explain what’s happening — a small chip, a recession site, a wear pattern — and you can see it in three dimensions, not on a paper x-ray.
Records carry forward. Every scan is stored. Next year, we can compare side-by-side and see exactly how things changed.
Book a Consult
If you’re considering Invisalign, need a crown, or just want to see what your teeth look like at a level of detail you’ve probably never seen before, come in. The scan is part of your visit, no extra charge, and the consultation is straightforward.
Schedule online or call (212) 245-2888. We’re at 200 W. 57th Street, Suite 1405.
Frangella Dental is a family-run cosmetic and general dentistry practice in Midtown Manhattan, focused on bringing modern digital dentistry to every visit.
