Dentistry faced a paradigm shift from practicing routine procedures to more technologically driven approaches. The young generation of dentists and hardware/software advancements are boosting this shift, adopting digital dentistry organically.
These approaches improve treatment quality, reduce chair time, and increase patient satisfaction. Additionally, it is a prominent factor in economic growth that reduces the overall turnover rate of dental procedures and decreases their cost, making them more affordable for patients across the world.
Technological Retrospective
Digital dentistry (DD) is the type of dental procedure that utilizes electronic and digital methods, acquiring and processing patients' data, significantly improving treatment outcomes. It emerged a few decades ago with the introduction of the first computerized tomography scanners in the 1970s.
Then, other industry representatives appeared, including simple photograph aggregators, documentation databases, and communication hubs handled by electronic devices. Another crucial element of this industry – 3D printers – emerged at the edge of the millennium in the 1990s.
The significant leap in DD evolution happened in the recent decade due to many factors, such as the emergence of affordable technologies and more evidence-based production approaches.
Current Progress
Over the last 5 years, digital dentistry has overcome the speculations and concerns, proving its potential to be the new global standard of dental care. The era of amalgams and old impression materials is fading, and more efficient digital techniques will soon replace them completely.
DD systems rapidly evolve, guaranteeing complete control of dental procedural workflow.
In the past few years, the focus has shifted to building digital ecosystems specifically for dental practitioners. These fascinating software and hardware are becoming popular among professionals with high technology adoption rates.
At this time, digital dentistry can be outlined in the following main branches:
- EMR systems
- Capturing devices and ecosystems
- Designing systems
- Rendering equipment and devices
- Materials
EMR systems
Today, about 70% of dental specialists use Electronic Medical (Health) Records systems in developed countries such as Germany and the USA. Meanwhile, some, such as the UAE, made this system a mandatory clinic standard. Thus, the healthcare industry receives an opportunity to store and share important clinical information that may be used for research and statistical assessments, improving the global quality level of healthcare services.
Advanced dental EMR systems can now create comprehensive digital files that contain patient demographic information, procedure history, and health records. Smart EMR software allows you to easily access patient data and quickly analyze them to improve monitoring and healthcare service quality, confirming physiological contradictions and exploring previous treatments. Additionally, modern software is often equipped with various billing features, enhancing your sales and allowing you to conduct/monitor transactions in a few clicks.
Last but not least – the built-in communication interface, integrated with messengers such as WhatsApp, permits you to notify your patients about changes in dental scheduling and remind them about appointments to improve conversion/retention rates.
Capturing devices and ecosystems
The digital dental practice uses various devices, including dental scanners, 3D printers, and computers equipped with special software. These elements obtain and operate different data types to pass the treatment process to a new quality level.
The adoption of such technologies has been rapidly growing over the last few years due to rising competition among software/hardware manufacturers, resulting in the emergence of new industry representatives and reduced product prices. The diversity of the technological market produced many affordable offers for clinics of any size. Due to these conditions, for instance, the US, Nordics, and Australia now have more than 50% of IOS adoption.
IOS, dental radiographs, face scans, and 3D models of implants and dentures are necessary in modern digital dental practice. Considering the sophistication of these technologies, modern dental teams and dentists must flatten the learning curve to avoid unnecessary delays in the clinic work.
Fortunately, the newer generation of dentists is now more familiar with digital workflow and has early exposure to the rationale of utilizing digital dentistry. Thus, the frontier of specialists that can operate digital technologies is rapidly growing, meaning that very soon, we will say that "no dentist practices amalgam anymore" in a dozen years.
Designing systems
This element is a crucial milestone of digital dental practice that became a driving factor in adopting the digital ecosystem in clinical practices. CAD software profoundly controls the quality of procedure outcomes and final dental prosthetics.
This technological approach benefits both parties of the treatment process – dental clinics and patients. There are plenty of surveys that show how CAD increases their satisfaction, for instance:
- 83% of dental clinic patients reported that seeing the digital crowns mock-up was essential to accepting the treatment plan.
- 86% of surveyed Austrian dentists use CAD software, and 96% of them would recommend it to colleagues.
Modern CAD programs are shifting to web-based platforms equipped with AI algorithms, reducing the requirements for adopting a system and offsetting the need for significant computing power.
Purely AI online services like Dentibird make it possible for single dentists to design new dentures with a few clicks, allowing small operators to perform high-quality dentistry efficiently.
Generally, AI-based dental radiology sets provide a new level of precision, outperforming qualified specialists in many areas. This technology is taking over regular dentistry, providing complete control over the electronic data for better analysis.
What's more important is that AI-equipped CAD solutions are becoming more available and affordable over time, enhancing productivity even in small-scale dental facilities.
Rendering equipment and devices
A new generation of dental production is introducing additive manufacturing through 3D printing, taking advantage of traditional approaches and improving its effectiveness with the computing power of modern hardware.
3D printing manufacturing plant is a game-changer in dentistry that makes it possible to produce a full range of dental products with minimum errors and easy to post-curing. Dentists can create any prosthesis with a highly customizable design, taking into account all anatomical features of the patient, using modern modeling software.
Current technology is advantageous due to its versatility, affordability, and efficiency, streamlining the process from capture to printing with very little human interaction in a semi-close cycle that assures the quality and consistency of products. In recent years, the cost of 3D printing has been reduced dramatically, transforming dental practice setups to adopt local manufacturing, reducing production time, and increasing patient satisfaction.
Also, printing equipment needs minimum maintenance and has a low depreciation rate, making it affordable even for small dental cabinets.
Materials
Digital dentistry practices allow us to choose a wide range of previously unavailable materials for dentures and prostheses development. CAD design guarantees complete control of the manufacturing process, permitting us to select various compounds that enable easy proceeding through integrated interfaces.
In recent years, this field has rapidly evolved. We have a list of fascinating options like zirconia and composite dental resins, which can produce solid dentures and mimic unique enamel texture and color. Material selection is highly variety in cost, aesthetics, and physical properties, allowing dentists to pick the most suitable for patients' needs and financial capabilities.
The fast evolution of materials started a new era of materials science that allowed researchers to experiment with different substances and chemicals to create a new composite.
Accelerators of digital dentistry adoption
To properly implement modern DD practices in your clinic, specialists should always keep an eye on the latest technological achievements. The following factors would be beneficial in that process:
- Networks of trusted partners involved in digital transformation – exchanging experiences with other enthusiasts is always helpful.
- Training and support team – to figure out how technology works, you should familiarize yourself with existing manuals and consult with an expert in the field.
- Internal development – integrating some digital tools into your ecosystem requires a team of developers who can tune them precisely to your needs.
- Quality Management team – to assess a particular system's quality and advantages before its implementation, it would be better to consult with appropriate specialists.
- Planning team and Consultancy advisory board – Technology integration requires a precise plan with different steps to adopt it correctly in your workflow.
