The Digital Age of Dentistry

There is now an old way of dentistry and a new way. The old way means when you have an injury like a cracked tooth, you have to have a model made of the injured tooth, send the impression to a laboratory to make a crown, wait for the crown to be made, come back a week later and have the crown put in place. The old way takes time, multiple visits, and more discomfort as you wait for the injury to be mended. The new way is quicker and uses computers to help you back to health faster. Using computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) technologies dentists can now make crowns in one office visit so that you don’t need to return to the office. This process works by using an intra-oral camera to take a digital scan of the mouth. This scan then appears on a screen as a 3-D image of your teeth and gums. Using that image the computer determines the ideal dimensions for the crown, which the dentist then refines. When the image of the crown is ready the digital information is transferred to a milling machine that carves out the crown from a ceramic block so it can be cemented to the tooth of the patient. This whole process takes less than two hours, a far cry from the older method that can take over a week.

Making crowns while you wait is not the only new development in the digital age of dentistry. There is now digital radiography (X-rays), which is faster than traditional X-rays and they expose patients to less radiation. There is also now a cone-beam computed tomography that is being utilized in dentist offices. This is like a CT scan for dentists that give a picture of the teeth, gums, tissues, and nerves around the mouth. Another innovation includes digital dentures that are made with computer design and digital manufacturing, similar to the process of making a digital crown. The advantage of having a digital record of the denture is that it can easily be replaced if broken or misplaced. The digital future of the dental industry is exciting and helping to innovate how we are cared for.

from Lee Krahenbuhl’s Dental Care and Medicine Webpage http://ift.tt/1iZ7IjD

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