There is no doubt today about the possibilities and potential of digital impression-taking with the aid of intraoral optical impression systems, and the past few years have seen a considerable increase in the range of optical intraoral scanners available on the market. On the strength of numerous innovations and a wider range of indications in orthodontics and implantology, intraoral scanning systems appear to be a highly promising development for the future. Digital impression-taking with intraoral scanners has already shown itself in some respects to be clearly superior to conventional impression- taking. Particularly worthy of mention is the versatile integration of digital impressions into diagnostic and treatment concepts to provide a customizable healthcare solution for the patient. It remains exciting to look forward to future developments that will allow us to observe digital impression-taking--as with other digital applications already established in everyday life--becoming firmly established in the routine of dentistry and dental technology. This article presents an overview of the benefits and limitations of digital impression-taking using intraoral scanning systems, and includes a summary of all the relevant intraoral scanners available on the market at present.