Digitalization has long since landed in our lives to make our daily lives easier. We all have some of these devices, such as cell phones, devices that allow us to control household appliances remotely, or even the one that tells us that we are missing food in the fridge.
Digitization in the dental field
Specifically, in the field of dentistry, one of the greatest advances achieved is the digitization of work tools. This change brings great benefits to our patients, both in their diagnosis, in communication with them, and in the development of their treatment plan; and, above all, it has changed the way we intervene on them.
For many years now we have had certain advances in the field of diagnosis; we have left behind the analogical, such as digital images in 2D and CT, which helped us to have a treatment plan. What we lacked was how to transport the information to the patient, both in the diagnosis and in the treatment plan, so that they could be treated.
Today we already have these tools that allow us to be treated; we can speak of a before and after in dentistry. These new technologies are our daily practice.
This great leap that has taken place is mainly due to 3D images and moving images, in addition to advances in the technologies we already use, such as 3D printing, computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD-CAM), which allows us to design and manufacture a wide range of structures for different specialties, fully customized for our patients.
This allows us to perform minimally invasive treatments and reduce treatment and appointment times in a large number of specialties within dentistry.
The technology of the future
As this is a broad field, we will explain step by step, and specialty by specialty, what this new era brings us and, of course, given the great boom in this field, we will explain that it is an invaluable aid to the great manual labor of technicians, assistants, hygienists, equipment …. and doctors. It allows the performance of the entire team to be much more beneficial, in favor of the patient, which is our ultimate goal.
Topics that we will talk about in the next installments:
- Digital Orthodontics
- Digital Periodontics and Hygiene
- Digital Implantology
- Digitalized Conservative
- Esthetics. DDS. Digital Smile Design
- Digitized Prosthesis.
- Digital Flow in the office.
In this way we will review each specialty, what it is and what they are for, and so you will understand their digital applications.