Technology Watch
Technology Watch
National Dentex Vice President of Research and Development Dell Dine, CDT, spends his days looking not just for the latest technological advances, but for the advances that are going to have a lasting impact on the industry also. Here are some of his thoughts about what to expect on the technology frontier.
Zirconia oxide will encroach on metal as a support structure. Laboratories have a lot of loyalty with their accounts, but that loyalty can only go as far as the products they offer. Doctors will use another laboratory that provides that framework even if they send most of their work to the first laboratory. Some laboratories are experiencing revenue shrinkage but not accounts. The reason for that is because doctors are going to other laboratories for different types of products.
CAD/CAM will soon become a necessity, but that doesn’t mean the machines will inhabit a corner in every laboratory. Many manufacturers will sell stand-alone scanners and design packages. Technicians won’t be fabricating the product; they will be buying a piece of it and getting that product through milling centers. In the future, laboratories will be fabricating less of the frameworks and doing more of putting the veneering material on the framework.
Digital impression taking will expand and change the way dentists and technicians interact. They are already taking digital impressions with an in-office CAD/CAM, but manufacturers market it as a milling machine. A number of doctors have said over the years that the milling machine is just OK to them but they are not terribly interested in becoming manufacturers. The next thing is for someone to market an intra-oral scanner that will create the ability to take digital impressions without a milling machine. Doctors will simply send that impression to the laboratory.
Open architecture will dominate new CAD/CAM systems. This will allow different systems to communicate with each other no matter their brands. For example if a dentist has one brand of CAD/CAM that allows him to take digital impressions, he will be able to electronically send that impression to a laboratory even if the laboratory has a different brand of CAD/CAM.
All-ceramic materials will change the usage ratios. About 10-20 percent of our industry does non-precious in the way of a metal that supports the porcelain that goes on it. There there’s about 20 percent that doesn’t have any metal involved in it. What is remaining is the porcelain to metal precious. That can be a high noble or a low noble. In the future, 30-40 percent of restorations that will not have metal affiliated with it.
Advances are being made in many products technicians know well. Nanotechnology research is resulting in new denture bases that will be denser, allowing them to better absorb oral fluids and improve the smell associated with dentures. Patient acceptance for implants will continue to grow as the industry trends toward single-stage implants. There’s a new generation of porcelains that are finer and less technique sensitive than ever before.
In laboratories, where the owners are working 60 hours a week making product, it’s hard for them to dedicate enough time to learn new technology. Because many owners must stay busy for those laboratories to be profitable and viable, it leaves precious little time for them to keep up with what is current in the industry.
