What is Digital Dentistry?

As technology continues to advance, digital technology is becoming more and more widely used in the field of dentistry as an important tool in dental diagnosis and treatment. Digital technology not only improves the accuracy of dental diagnosis and the effectiveness of treatment, but also changes the way dentists and patients communicate, bringing revolutionary changes to the dental industry. So what is digital dentistry?

Digital dentistry is a broad term that includes any dental technology that involves the use of computer-based components such as hardware devices and software solutions. The main current technology tools are digital scanning, computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) to enable accurate measurement and reconstruction of teeth and oral structures. The aim is to enable dental professionals to provide more accurate, efficient and predictable treatment with the help of computer-aided tools.

As early as 1984, the French dentist Dr Francois Duret first applied the CAD/CAM principle to dental impressions. Since then, many digital dental solutions have been invented and patented by people from all over the world. However, due to the lag in the technological development of dental-related software, hardware, materials and other equipment, today around 85% of dental practices worldwide still make impressions in the traditional way (impression trays).

The digital process

The standard digital dental workflow consists of three steps:

1. Digital scanning (digital impression)

2. Treatment planning and design (CAD)

3. Visualisation and manufacturing (CAM)

Digital scanning

Dental scanning equipment is the source of digitisation and is the basis of digitisation. The equipment usually included includes CBCT, intra-oral scanners, facial scanners, cameras, etc. The dental cone beam CT (Dental Cone Beam CT) is the most common scanner in the world. Dental cone beam CT (CBCT) scanners are used to take X-rays of the oral region; intraoral scanners replace the traditional impression method and use digital modelling to obtain a digital structure of the tooth and surrounding tissues. In addition, oral scanning equipment makes it easier for dentists to diagnose patients and obtain problems and defects that are not noticeable to the naked eye.

Treatment planning and design

Dentists and technicians operate dental design software to load digital scanning data to design and plan treatment plans (orthodontics, prosthetics, implants). The orthodontic field usually involves digital tooth lining and the generation of orthodontic appliances or appliance moulds; the prosthetic field usually involves the creation of restorations such as dentures, tubes, bridges, inlays and high inlays, veneers, etc.; and the implant field focuses on the design of implant plans and the generation of surgical guides, crowns, All-on-X, etc. These solutions help to deliver treatment in a precise, fast, predictable and easy to evaluate manner.

Visual manufacturing

The designed digital models are pre-processed in CAM software and sent to dental 3D printers or digital milling equipment to create orthodontic appliances (e.g. aligners and retainers), indirectly bonded trays, dentures, crowns, bridges, occlusal splints, surgical guides, etc.