Digital Dentistry: Ready or not... Here it comes
Digital dentistry such as CAD-CAM is not new. CAD-CAM dentistry has been with us since 1980 when the first CEREC was invented. CEREC 2 was popular in Europe and here in the US. However, the technology had been stalled and the market movement had not been significant. While CEREC has been focusing on the in-office same day restorative fabrication, in the dental lab, digital technology such as Procera was introduced in the early to mid 90s. Faulty restoration, unfitting restorative margin, and lack of esthetics had limited the popularity of these digital fabricated restorations.
Until the last 10 years, the digital technology had remained a limited option for certain dental laboratories and practices. Recently, the combination of advance technology in intra-oral scanners, dental cast (model) scanners, as well as improvement of softwares allow us to fabricate better in-lab and more recently in-office restorations and prostheses.
Unlike the private sector, most dental schools have been cautious. While most if not all dental schools have a plan to adopt digital dentistry in their curriculum, only a small percent of dental schools have truly implemented the technologies.
The American College of Prosthodontists (ACP) Digital Dentistry Curriculum Development Task Force has recently released their finding in the current literature on the applications of digital dentistry in CAD-CAM crown and fixed partial denture fabrication, removable partial denture/complete denture fabrication, as well as guided implant surgery. The task force concluded that while there will still be a continuing trend of improvement in cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT), intra-oral scanners, and milling machines, the current technologies show promise of clinical excellence similar to conventional prosthetic fabrication techniques.
The time of change has come for dental practitioners and educators. We have to make a choice here. If we do not adopt the new technologies and move forward with them, we will be left behind. Embracing digital dentistry will provide our patients a better care and improve education for new generations of dentists. This is not a choice. It is an obligation.
