Straumann explains the impact that CAD/CAM technological have in the laboratory and how to maximise its potential.
The journey to take dentistry into a digital age has created an untold number of fresh ideas and solutions. Treatments become faster and more efficient with each step.
In turn, CAD/CAM software has become an essential tool in many dental laboratories and practices, simplifying processes and improving their outcomes.
Employing CAD/CAM technology in the laboratory is often a steep investment, so it’s essential to maximise its potential at every possible moment. This could mean investing in quality materials and optimising communication between professionals, but it begins with the individual.
Technicians working with the technology regularly shouldn’t simply understand it, but realise its myriad opportunities to change their workflows.
Widening knowledge
In many cases, digital dentistry can improve upon the accuracy and efficacy once offered by analogue techniques (Mello et al, 2019) (Janeva et al, 2018). Some labs have even been established on the premise that they only offer digital solutions as a result.
However, the increased presence of CAD/CAM software in everyday dentistry doesn’t diminish the importance of an experienced and knowledgeable dental technician. There are many tasks, like creating highly aesthetic, hand finished restorations, that computer programs cannot replicate.
Digital workflows require fresh skills that adapt to the new ways of designing and manufacturing restorations. These new skills are mainly an understanding of the software and any operating intricacies, but experience of the analogue processes is often important to ensure the safest and most effective results for the patient.
Technicians can develop their digital capabilities through a variety of courses. Most of the training for UK technicians is company-led (Blackwell et al, 2017), which allows for an attentive focus on the specific systems used within a laboratory.
Seeking out external sources of training could update technicians on the best and latest uses for CAD/CAM technology, with a wider scope to the general field. Perhaps generating new uses of the technology previously unthought of for their lab’s software.
The importance of communication
The digital process doesn’t begin and end at the laboratory. The larger system requires a variety of professionals including technicians, dentists, dental hygienists and specialists to lean on each other’s expertise. The key word here is communication. By streamlining the sharing of information between professionals, technicians can produce restorations sooner, and to a higher level of accuracy.
Nearly nine in 10 practitioners in the UK are convinced that CAD/CAM technology optimises communication. By using imagery and intraoral scans, practitioners can offer an in-depth and visualised insight that can be worked on digitally by the technician.
This could be more useful than a physical impression. A dentist can easily include any additional details that they feel are important to note, and have a single stream of communication in one easy to track platform. By removing transport times for physical products, the lab can also deliver a quicker turnaround time for the final restoration.
One study found that around half of dentists interviewed had been contacted by a technician requiring extra information to supplement what they initially sent (Cheikh et all, 2021). It’s a familiar feeling, and it’s safer to triple check and achieve a brilliant restoration first time than misjudge values and end up with an unhappy patient and remakes.
By establishing information that a technician requires beforehand, and employing software that aims to gather it completely, the CAD/CAM process can help breed success day in, day out.
Creating exceptional restorations
The main purpose of CAD/CAM software is to enhance the ability to reach a patient’s outcome sooner, with assurance of a quality restoration. This could mean replacing a lost tooth in a patient’s aesthetic zone sooner, bringing back confidence in a smile, or restoring the bite function that a patient sorely missed.
However, it isn’t possible without the right physical components supporting the digital process.
When compared to conventionally fabricated restorations, CAD/CAM solutions can offer superior mechanical and physical properties, such as an enhanced accuracy of fit, less movement and increased toughness (Janeva et al, 2018).
By working with more precise designs offered by digital scanning (Abduo et al, 2021), technicians can better judge the necessary components that form the overall implant structure, from the implant and framework, down to the abutment.
‘No two restorations are the same’
It feels trite to say that no two restorations are the same. Whether a single-tooth, bridge or full-denture solution, the angles and spaces will differ greatly and the patient’s oral health will vary too.
It’s therefore important for technicians to ensure that they have an array of equipment at their disposal, with differing applications that fit seamlessly into a CAD/CAM workflow, while accommodating for the unique challenges each case presents.
For an extensive range of highly-precise and economical solutions, technicians should consider the Multi-Platform System (MPS) from Medentika. The collection of expertly designed abutments and components features specially designed options for use alongside CAD/CAM technology.
MPS products are compatible with all major implant systems that are on the market for an immediate impact on your workflows.
Production in the dental laboratory hasn’t been the same since CAD/CAM technology was first used in 1985 (Ozkan and Celiksoz, 2022). Its developments over time will only continue, providing innovative solutions in the years to come.
With proactive technicians who keep up with the latest techniques and benefits of the workflow, and optimise it alongside the latest and most effective implant components, patients can count on ever-improving restorations in the years to come.
References
- Mello, C. C., Lemos, C. A. A., de Luna Gomes, J. M., Verri, F. R., & Pellizzer, E. P. (2019). CAD/CAM vs conventional technique for fabrication of implant-supported frameworks: A systematic review and meta-analysis of in vitro studies. Int J Prosthodont, 32(2), 182-192
- Janeva, N. M., Kovacevska, G., Elencevski, S., Panchevska, S., Mijoska, A., & Lazarevska, B. (2018). Advantages of CAD/CAM versus conventional complete dentures-a review. Open access Macedonian journal of medical sciences, 6(8), 1498
- Blackwell, E., Nesbit, M., & Petridis, H. (2017). Survey on the use of CAD-CAM technology by UK and Irish dental technicians. British dental journal, 222(9), 689-693.
- Cheikh, Y., Badre, B., El Assraoui, K., Karram, M. A., Khechane, Y., & Kaoun, K. (2021). Study of Effective Dentists Communication with Laboratory Technicians in Removable Partial Prosthesis
- Janeva, N. M., Kovacevska, G., Elencevski, S., Panchevska, S., Mijoska, A., & Lazarevska, B. (2018). Advantages of CAD/CAM versus conventional complete dentures-a review. Open access Macedonian journal of medical sciences, 6(8), 1498
- Abduo, J., & Palamara, J. E. (2021). Accuracy of digital impressions versus conventional impressions for 2 implants: an in vitro study evaluating the effect of implant angulation. International Journal of Implant Dentistry, 7, 1-13
- Ozkan, S., Celiksoz, D. (2022). An Overview Of CAD/CAM Systems In Prosthodontics And Restorative Dentistry. Multidisciplinary Approach In Medical Science I, 37.
For more information, please visit www.straumann.com/medentika/us/en/dentistry.html.
