Inputs
Which scans do you need for a VeX model?
Two files: a jaw scan and a teeth scan. Both as binary STL or binary PLY, in any orientation, up to 100 MB each.
The two inputs
The jaw scan
The patient’s arch as scanned: gum and crowns, in one surface. This is an ordinary intraoral or model scan — nothing has to be removed from it first. It supplies the gingival surface of the finished model, including the papillae and the vestibular contour.
The teeth scan
The tooth anatomy on its own, separated from the gum, including the part below the gum margin. This is what supplies the root pockets. A teeth file containing only the visible crowns has no root information in it, and no software can recover what was never scanned.
Why two files and not one. Over the crowns the two scans describe the same surfaces, so they coincide. Below the gum margin they separate, because only one of them has anything there. That separation is how the gum line is located — which is why both files are needed even though one of them appears to contain the other.
Formats
| Format | Supported | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Binary STL (.stl) | Yes | The usual export from intraoral scanners and dental CAD. |
| Binary PLY (.ply) | Yes | Common where colour or per-vertex data is carried; the colour is ignored. |
| ASCII STL / ASCII PLY | No | Re-export as binary — every scanner and CAD package offers it. |
| DICOM / CBCT | No | A VeX is built from optical surface scans; CBCT describes bone, not the gum surface. |
Format is chosen by file extension, and the two inputs do not have to match — a PLY jaw and an STL teeth file is fine.
Orientation
It does not matter. Scans arrive in whatever orientation the scanner and the technician left them in, and the occlusal axis is derived from the geometry itself. The finished model comes back in the orientation you supplied, so it still registers against the rest of your case.
Two shapes a case can arrive in
Both are supported, and they are handled differently on purpose.
One continuous surface
The usual case: the jaw scan is a single surface covering gum and crowns together, and the teeth scan overlaps it across the crowns. The gum line is found from where the two separate.
Teeth as separate solids
Some workflows produce a gum sheet with tooth-shaped holes in it, plus a closed tooth solid — crown and root — sitting in each hole. Here the two files do not diverge at all, because the teeth file is those same solids exported on their own.
This is detected structurally rather than by measuring separation, and each tooth is cut at the rim of its own hole in the gum sheet. That rim is the gum line, by construction, so the cut needs no threshold at all.
Quality of the scan
- Sub-gingival capture is what limits the result. The root pockets can only be as deep as the teeth scan goes.
- The two scans should be registered to each other — they normally are, coming from the same case. Small offsets are measured and compensated; a genuinely misaligned pair is a different problem.
- Holes in the gum are tolerated. Genuine small holes are closed; the tooth channels are left open, because they are meant to be.
Frequently asked questions
Which file formats are supported?
Binary STL and binary PLY, for both inputs. The format is detected from the file extension.
Does the scan need to be oriented a particular way?
No. The occlusal axis is derived from the scans themselves, so any orientation is accepted and the result comes back in the orientation you supplied.
What is a segmented teeth scan?
A file containing the tooth anatomy on its own, separated from the gum — including the part below the gum margin. It is what supplies the root pockets in the finished model.
What if my teeth arrive as separate solids sitting in holes in the gum?
That is a supported input class and it is handled explicitly. Each tooth is cut at the rim of its own hole in the gum sheet, which is the gum line by construction.
How large can the files be?
Up to 100 MB each, which comfortably covers a full-arch intraoral scan.
Got both files? That is all it takes.
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