Retainer / night guard work flow - thoughts?

[Labman84]

We're currently pouring models & thermoforming on a biostar. It's relatively messy & I would like to digitize the process if possible.

We have a smart optics desktop scanner which is great for replicating stone models & printing a replica. I know some have issues with resin shrinkage but so far, no issues so printing models is not a concern. I would like to scan impressions directly to avoid pouring stone but our scanner just cannot capture large areas around the front of the impression. I have screenshared with smart optics & their advice was it provably isn't possible but try using scanning spray (I'm not optimistic).
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Does anyone have any experience digitizing retainer / night guard work flow? We have tried nextdent resin to print night guards directly but they are very poor imo so for now I do accept we're stuck with thermoforming. If we could somehow print the models though that would be amazing. I know invisalign scan impressions so it is possible - maybe our machine just isn't good suitable. Any advice is much appreciated!

 

[Cleo]

We do it a lot. A majority of thes for us come in digitally, but for others we either scan the stone model if it comes in poured up or if it is alginate we pour and scan the model so we have a backup. But only print those if the model gets ruined. For pvs we scan, print and thermoform. When we scan we remove extra impression material. Sometimes if the impression has long extensions it can block the camera from capturing really deep parts of the impression. We use medit lab scanners and they work great with no spray.
For night guards we design and mill most of them digitally and then mount and equalibriate. I mount all of those with printed models and it works great. No teeth chipping or breaking