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cone beam CE

cone beam1_2012 I practice matters _ interview field. This next step into 3-D imaging has been one of the most exciting as it seems to be an opportunity to achieve an even higher standard of care for the patient. Today, my role is one of the most exciting roles in the dental industry as I currently act as director of imaging for Henry Schein Dental, the world’s largest distributor of medical and dental products, helping to lead the direction for the future of dental imaging whenever possible and creating the digital environment. We’re now at the point of perfectly pairing intraoral 3-Ddigitalsurfacescanswith3-Dcone-beamscans. You’ve been intimately involved in bringing some of these technologies together. What are the advan- tages of combining this information for the practi- tionerandthepatient? This new technology is referred to as pairing scans, and consists of aligning two sets of data that come from two different technologies and have two distinct advantages, but when combined together provide more information than was ever available before from which to diagnose and treatment plan. The reason for pairing is very simple. The scan created from the handheld intraoral scanner for the CAD/CAM system is currently one of the highest resolution scans available, but unfortu- nately it is unable to get any information below the gum line. With the CBCT scan, we now get incredible information below the gum line. When these scans are combined, or paired, we create an incredible op- portunity to treatment plan a procedure that takes place above the gum line and below the gum line. This happens to correspond perfectly to one of the fastest growing segments of the dental community, implant dentistry. For many years, implant therapy was a procedure where the restorative general practitioners did not haveasmuchcontrolintheplacementoftheimplant astheywouldhaveliked.Theimplantplacementwas mostly handled by an oral surgeon who would place the implant where the bone dictated, but not always in conjunction with where the restoration would ideally be placed. This has sparked a new theory that has truly ex- cited the dental community. Finally, we have a prac- tical solution, restorative driven implant therapy, which refers to planning implant therapy from the restorative point of view. Simply put, this means placing an implant while being sure to take into account the requirements for the placement of the restoration. This theory offers the general practitioner more control over the treatment from planning through completionandassuresamoreconfidentrestorative result for the patient. Speaking of perfect pairing, you’re also known as a wine connoisseur/collector. Please tell us about this passionandhowitrelatestowhatyouseehappening indentistrywithconebeam. I developed a passion for wine collecting in 2000 and found that wine is another opportunity to pair two things together and achieve a higher level of value/satisfaction than either part was capable of alone. There are some wines that are bursting with flavor,yetpairthemwithaparticularfoodandalong with the bursting flavor you can suddenly decipher nuances that you never noticed before. Flavorsthatseemedhiddenbeforebutarebrought toanewlevelduetothepairing.Thisstartedmeona questtotestdifferentpairingsandfindoutformyself how incredible some of these flavors could be. There is no one universal wine, although good arguments could be made, but rather there are dif- ferent wines for different occasions; different wines match more properly with different flavors. It is a never-ending learning, testing and tasting oppor- tunity. There are some rules, but they are more like guidelines. I continue to find things that together raise an eveningtoanewlevel.SuchasafineBordeauxpaired with the strong flavors of lamb, or the way a fabu- lous sauterne such as a Chateau d’Yquem can pair perfectly with chocolate and dessert, as well as blue cheese and Foie gras. The possibilities are endless. This also relates for me to the aspect that not all technologiescanbeorshouldbepaired.Thereareop- timal pairing partners. Manufactures of cone beam andCAD/CAMhaveworkedtooptimizetheirsystems with either a particular proprietary system [CEREC and Galileos] or more of an open selection [E4D and i-CAT, Gendex, OP-300 and Scanora] providing clini- cians a wide variety to choose from. In the wine world we call this a broad pairing op- portunity, where a wine pairs perfectly with several varieties, thus giving you more options. Twoelementselevatingeachothertoheightsthat neither one could achieve alone. This is also shown in the growth of technology itself. Technology is rapidlychangingandcreatingparadigmshiftsinour 36 I ‘Three-dimensional imaging is the future of dentistry in many ways, and the sooner it is embraced, the sooner we will reap the benefits.’