This one should be a no-brainer for all the dentistry students in Lahore and Karachi. In 1828, Dr. John M. Harris initiated the first dental school in Ohio, which aided in the establishment of dentistry as a proper profession. From then onwards, the dentistry has profited from non-stop scientific progress and mechanical advancements to become the multi-billion dollar industry that it is today.
Dentistry is a part of the medical profession comprising of studies, diagnostics, counteractive action and treatment of illnesses, diseases and conditions in the oral cavity.
The greatest obstruction to widely-available quality dental services is the provision of quality equipment and knowledge of the latest techniques. Dental considerations can be costly and hard to avail; particularly in third world countries. As per the American Dental Association, it is revealed that numerous provincial regions within mainland U.S. do not have adequate dental services to treat local populations properly.
With that note, here are 4 tools and techniques widely used in the dental industry which not only aided the profession’s progress profoundly, but still hold importance in today’s time – helping doctors diagnose and treat in a better manner.
Dental CAD/CAM
Dental CAD/CAM (Computer Aided Design/Manufacturing) is widely used in the industry to outline and manufacture individual dental restorations i.e. crowns, scaffolds and halfway prosthetic casings for prostheses.
Computer aided design/CAM can likewise be utilized for outlines and layouts where precision is key. Recent years have seen CAD/CAM take enormous leaps forward because of advancements in both machine-imaging and plan programming.
The CAD/CAM process can be broken down into three stages:
- Formation of a model
- Reclamation outline
- Assembling
Computer aided design/CAM production is quick, relatively inexpensive and can help prevent extensive costs associated with re-doing work due to imprecise casting and measurements.
X-Rays
Modern dental practitioners depend heavily on X-rays to have visual access to parts of the mouth that can’t be seen by dental examination devices and the naked eye.
X-ray images are depictions of short-length electromagnetic radiation on film or a digital device; they can be used to reveal the internal structure of teeth and bones. In their simplest use, they can highlight tooth decay and bone thinning around the tooth.
Both modern dental practices around the world employ the use of in-house x-ray machines of varying qualities; this enables dentists to diagnose and work on patients within the same session.
3D Radiographic Imaging
3D Dental radiography is a giant leap forward from conventional 2-dimensional x-rays.. Dental radiographic images can be be classified as intraoral and extraoral; and are used distinguish issues in the patient’s bones, delicate tissues and dental structures in the jaw and skull area.
Conventional 2D x-rays have their limitations; they are appropriate for fundamental diagnosis but do not provide the adequate amount of data required for advanced procedures and analysis e..g. cephalometric examination (skull measurement investigation).
3D tests overcome some of these limitations and can provide a holistic view of the patient’s medical status.
3D Virtual workflow
Three-dimensional image-based virtual workflows have provided an alternative to conventional methods of planning advanced dental procedures and
They are particularly utilized in orthognathic medical procedures (jaw medical procedure territory to treat issues that cannot be restored with conventional orthodontics, for example, supports, and so on.) and orthodontics.
The typical work process incorporates advanced imaging methods, management of a virtual model, diagnostics and arrangements and the post-operative assessment of virtual treatment results.
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