The model
What is a VeX model (Virtual Extraction Model)?
A VeX model — short for Virtual eXtraction model — is a digital representation of a patient’s jaw as it will look once the failing teeth are removed, built from scans taken while those teeth are still in the mouth.
What a VeX model is made of
Geometrically a VeX is a very specific subset of the two scans it comes from. It is the gum surface plus the tooth roots, cut at the gum line, with the crowns discarded.
- The gingival surface — the patient’s own gum, including the interdental papillae and the vestibular contour, exactly as scanned.
- The root pockets — the walls of each socket below the gum margin, taken from the tooth anatomy rather than invented.
- The gum line itself — the boundary where the two meet, which is where surgical guides and provisional restorations will seat.
Nothing else is added. A correct VeX never fabricates surface that was not in one of the two input scans; the only new geometry is the thin seam that closes gum to root so the model is watertight.
What a VeX model is not
| Not this | Because |
|---|---|
| A wax-up or a digital design | A VeX carries no planned prosthesis. It is the anatomy you design against, not the design. |
| A CBCT bone model | A VeX is built from optical surface scans and shows soft tissue and root form, not bone density or volume. |
| A preparation or die model | Nothing is prepared or reduced. Crowns are removed, not shaped. |
| A scan with the teeth deleted | Deleting a tooth leaves a hole that has to be filled with invented surface. A VeX keeps the real root anatomy instead. |
Why a VeX model exists
Gum tissue does not wait. The interdental papillae — the small peaks of gum between the teeth — begin to collapse within minutes of an extraction, and the interproximal tissue that loses its support flattens toward the dimension of unsupported tissue. Once that has happened, the shape is gone and no impression can recover it.
That leaves a gap in the digital workflow. The surgical guide and the provisional restoration both have to meet tissue that still has its pre-extraction architecture, but the only impression taken at surgery records tissue that is already collapsing. A VeX model closes that gap: it captures the architecture before it goes, and keeps it available for the rest of the case.
What clinicians use it for
Preserving the papillae in the design
The papillae are the most fragile and the most valuable tissue in an FP1 case, and their preservation is what aesthetic and biologic success is judged on. Designing against a VeX keeps them visible and explicit throughout planning instead of leaving them to be reconstructed from memory.
A transmucosal reference
The socket and root shape below the gum margin is the reference for what the tissue was supported by. It informs the emergence profile of the provisional and the shape the tissue will be asked to hold after surgery.
Surgical guides that seat correctly
A guide resting on soft tissue has to meet it exactly — without pressure, and without unintentionally displacing gum it was meant to preserve. Designing the tissue-bearing surface against the real pre-extraction shape is what makes that possible.
A trustworthy tissue shape for the lab
When the lab adapts the provisional, the impression it receives from surgery shows loose, collapsing papillae. The VeX is the shape that can be trusted.
Where the term comes from
“VeX model” was defined in a 2025 Quintessence of Dental Technology paper on a digital reinterpretation of FP1 full-arch implant treatment. The paper sets out both the model and the four clinical uses above. Read about the research ›
Building one
Traditionally a VeX is produced by hand in dental CAD: outlining each crown, deleting it from the scan, closing the resulting hole and reshaping the area. VeX Model Creator does it from the two scans directly — aligning them, locating the gum line, removing the crowns and closing the model — which in beta testing has averaged around thirty minutes saved per model against preparing it manually.
How the generation works › · What scans you need ›
Frequently asked questions
What is a VeX model in dentistry?
A VeX (Virtual eXtraction) model is a digital model of a patient's jaw as it would look immediately after the failing teeth are removed, but built from scans taken while the teeth are still in place. It keeps the gum surface and the root pockets below the gum margin, and removes only the clinical crowns.
How is a VeX model different from a normal jaw scan?
A jaw scan contains the gum and the crowns. A VeX keeps the gum but replaces the crowns with the root anatomy that sits beneath them, so you can see and plan against the tissue shape that will exist after extraction.
What two files do I need to make one?
A jaw scan and a segmented teeth scan, as binary STL or PLY. Orientation does not matter — the axis is derived automatically. See the scan requirements page.
Is a VeX model the same as a virtual extraction in exocad?
No. exocad's virtual extraction deletes the tooth from the scan and leaves a hole that you then fill in, which creates surface that was never in the patient. A VeX keeps the real root anatomy captured by the teeth scan instead of synthesising a replacement.
Which cases is a VeX model used for?
Full-arch FP1 planning above all, where the prosthesis must meet preserved gum tissue, plus single-implant and partial cases where the emergence profile and papillae matter.
See the anatomy before you change it.
Upload a jaw scan and a teeth scan and get a VeX model back. No manual trimming.
Create a VeX model ↗