American dental care has come a long way in the past 50 years, and even in the past decade. People are now receiving dental implants in one day, cosmetic dental work is becoming a norm to aesthetically improve one’s smile, and laser teeth whitening takes a matter of minutes. One of the newest and most practical technological movements in the dental world is the practice of digital dentistry.
What is Digital Dentistry?
Digital dentistry is a broad term used to describe any dental technology or device that involves a computer or other digitally controlled components. This is different from mechanical (usually battery powered) and electrical (plug-in) equipment. Digital dentistry can be as obvious as computer aided manufacturing of a mouth guard to the delivery of a sedative before oral surgery.
What is it Applied to?
Some general dentistry services are now using digital dentistry for cosmetic dental work. An implant dentist may use a computer to design the false teeth for their patient. Dental implants are typically inserted into the jaw bone and then capped with a tooth-like crown, but they first must be designed via computer programs.
Teeth whitening procedures also involve digital dentistry these days. Computers are widely used in order to help dentists obtain a desired shade for a patient. The laser is also computer controlled.
Shade matching for receiving teeth in a day is another perk of digital dentistry these days. Computers are generally more accurate when it comes to analyzing and comparing colors.
Adoption of Digital Dentistry
Studies have shown that it takes an average of about 25 years for new technology to be widely accepted and used. Although American dental care is at the forefront of the industry, if this technology of digital dentistry is new and dubbed the future of dentistry, then it may unfortunately take 25 years for it to be fully integrated into general practices.
Advantages of Digital Dentistry
Having computers to the brunt of labor for us will improve efficiency on both the cost and time front, while improved accuracy and less margin of error is also an added bonus. Consistent results are also another advantage of computer technology that can help improve American dental care.
sources
http://www.dentaleconomics.com/articles/print/volume-101/issue-10/features/digital-dentistry-is-this-the-future-of-dentistry.html More can be found here.
