A method for obtaining one or more 3D surface images of a tooth, the method executed at least in part by a computer repeats a sequence of acquiring a succession of images of the tooth from a scanner, in particular an intra-oral structured-light scanner, at a scanner acquisition rate and changing the scanner acquisition rate according to differences between successive images in the acquired succession of images. In particular, said differences are used to determine the relative speed of movement of the scanner and to use this information to adjust the acquisition frequency such that the amount of redundant information in the image data is reduced.
