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Dental Tribune Middle East & Africa Edition | 3/2016 28 interview Interview: “Technology leads to better dentistry” ByDentalTribuneMEA/CAPPmea During the 11th CAD/CAM & Digital Dentistry Int’l Conference, which recently took place on 06-07 May 2016 at Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai, Dental Tribune MEA had the pleasure of interviewing several in- ternational experts about the latest dental technologies. The organizer, CAPP, had gathered together an im- pressive scientific lineup consisting of renowned international speakers, sowemanagedtoaskthesameques- tionstosomeofthem.Let’scompare theirdifferentopinions. Dental Tribune MEA/CAPPmea: Have digital solutions changed the way dentistsareperformingnowadays? Dr. Eduardo Mahn, Chile: In my opin- ion, the answer is both yes and no. Certain methods work much bet- ter now, especially with the help of digital dentistry and CAD/CAM technologies, as these have become standardized protocols whilst other methods remain unchanged due to technological and mechanical re- strictions. Digital solutions have not necessarily improved the way den- tists work directly. We all still need to perform a lot of the steps by our- selves anyway, for example we are the ones who prepare the teeth we need to cement using restorations madebyCAD/CAMmachines. Prof. Jan-Frederik Güth, Germany: Digital solutions have not changed theprinciplesofdentistry.Theyhave more to do with the way we work as dentists, bringing more predictabil- ity and analyzing 3D datasets, using analytictoolsthatofferusmorethan justCAD/CAMdentistry.Thisiswhat makesitmorevaluable.Ibelievedig- ital solutions have not revolution- ized but evolutionized dentistry. It is anongoingprocess. Asst. Prof. Dr. Cagdas Kislaoglu, Tur- key:Digitalsolutionshelpusinevery way. They allow us to work faster and more efficiently, and give us the ability to foresee everything. Digital technologies have become an im- portant part of our daily life and this trend will continue to grow in the future. In my opinion, every dentist will have to use digital dental solu- tionssoonerratherthanlater. Dr. Michael Dieter, Switzerland: Yes, digital technologies have definitely had a great impact on dentistry. I first came into contact with digital dentistry in 1998 when I became very fascinated by CAD/CAM sys- tems that had just been launched at the time. Now, eight years later, the technology has already been tested through real life situations - those restorations have been in the patients’ mouths for years thus providing us valuable test results. A lot of dentists struggle to do tooth preparations correctly. For instance, they have used technologies such as metal based restorations for a cer- tainperiodoftimeandnowallofthe suddentheywanttouseceramicres- torations, so, when performing the preparations, they do not have im- mediate feedback. They have taken impressions and the dental techni- cian has to deal with the end result. However, when they take a scan, they receive immediate feedback and that’s what makes them better dentists. It is not about the technol- ogy itself, but the technology leads tothefactthatdentistshavebecome better. What part does CAD/CAM and digital dentistry play in the development of dentalspecialties? Dr. Eduardo Mahn, Chile: I believe it is an important one. Nowaways, CAD/ CAM is playing a new role in many processes and many specialties: not onlyinprosthodonticsorrestorative dentistry, but also in orthodontics, implantologyandsurgery. Dr. Jan Paulics, Denmark: Actually, if you view dentistry from a new per- spective, not seeing the clinic and the dentist as separate, but seeing everything combined in a complete workflow. So instead of simply tak- ing the patient in and taking care of them, you start at the beginning by digitizing everything. When some- one comes into the clinic we first scanthepatient,thenwesittogether and go through everything that is happening in their mouth. From there on, we can plan the treatment together. In this way the patient is fullyinvolvedandthereisnoneedto sellanytreatmenttothem-theywill betheonestoaskforitinstead. Prof. Jihad Abdallah, Lebanon: Well, digital dentistry was something I had been looking for that I found in CBCT. I thought it would be great to use in the field of implant dentistry. When the patient comes into the of- fice and you have a CBCT machine, youcaneasilyfindthedatayouneed to plan and execute the case. Some- times you need to do CBCT during surgical planning in very complex cases. Only when we received the CBCT machine in the office, did we understand the power of digital den- tistry. The technology also allowed metotakeitastepfurtherbyacquir- inganintraoralcameraandamilling machine. Do you think that digital dentistry is thefutureofdentistry? Prof. Jan-Frederik Güth, Germany: Ab- solutely. What is happening at the moment is that we have what I call ‘different island solutions’ in digital dentistry: intraoral scanning, face scanning, digital articulators, every- thing is now connected together so we can put bridges between all those islands. This is where development takes part. If one day this connection happenstobecomecomplete,digital dentistry will make even more sense becauseitsvaluewillincrease. Prof.JihadAbdallah,Lebanon:Yes,the development of digital dentistry will give more prospects for different in- office treatments and dentists will be able to offer better treatments to theirpatients. Michele Temperani, CDT, Italy: Tech- nology is a good thing and it’s some- thing that can’t be stopped. Eventu- ally, most of the work will be done by machines but the handicraft of dental technicians will always be the best. What might happen is that dental technicians would do high quality work using their own hands, which would come to be considered of the highest value and probably not many people would be able to affordit. What are the advantages of digital dentistry? Dr. Eduardo Mahn, Chile: The main advantage of digital dentistry is that machines are accurate and can Dr.EduardoMahn,Chile Prof.Jan-FrederikGüth,Germany Dr.JanPaulics,Denmark Asst.Prof.Dr.CagdasKislaoglu,Turkey Dr.MichaelDieter,DDS,Switzerland Dr.TifQureshi,UK ÿPage30 “...youhavethisability topredictwhereyouare goingtogo,tocontrol things”