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ePaper created 2016-10-04, 09:33:57 | version 1.38.0
| feature interview 06 CAD/CAM 3 2016 “I believe that the digital future holds promising prospects” An interview with Dr João Fonseca from Portugal Dr Fonesca was one of the distinguished speakers at the Ivoclar Vivadent International Expert Sym- posium which this year was held in Madrid, Spain. DTI had the opportunity to speak with him about the benefits and drawbacks of digitisation in dentistry. DTI: With the ongoing digitisation process, dental professionals now have possibilities that were un- thinkable30yearsago.Whatarethemainimpacts —and certainly benefits—of this development on the field of dental aesthetics? Dr João Fonseca: Computer chips and architecture have evolved enormously over the last few decades. Nevertheless, some predicted leaps in technology have yet to happen, as Moore’s Law predictions are right on track. Google announced recently that it is launching a new processing unit that will enhance our processing capabilities by a factor of three Moore’sgenerations(sevenyears).Smartermachines withbetteralgorithmsthattakeadvantageofbillions of transistors and complex chip architecture will be used in the future to better aid the dental team in all phasesofthetreatmentplan.Andthatwill,ofcourse, mean the generation of better proposed treatment basedonmorphologydatabasesandalgorithms,with higherpossibilitiesofsuccessregardingaestheticin- tegration. In addition, the possibility of immediately printing and snapping on aesthetic mock-ups might be a powerful diagnostic tool in the near future. Although digital technology can facilitate and increase the efficiency of dental treatment, some human qualities are probably difficult to replace. Yes. Although some enthusiasts in the field of artifi- cialintelligencepredictedatechnologicalsingularity [Editorialnote:Accordingtothetechnologicalsingu- larity hypothesis, accelerating progress in technolo- gies will result in a runaway effect in which artificial intelligence will surpass human cognitive ability.] during this century, to date, machines are not able to learnortofeelthewaywehumansdo.Whenyougaze atthestarsorwatchthesunsetonaperfectsummer’s day, it is this kind of sensation that cannot yet be de- scribed in a mathematical formula or decomposed in awaythatcouldbeemulatedbyacomputer.Thereare otheraspectsindentalprosthodonticsandaesthetics for which we could debate whether machines would be able to replace us, but I think human emotion will continue to draw a line for many years to come. Apart from the new possibilities that digital den- tistry offers, what does the increasing automati- sationmeanforboththepatientandtheclinician? Increasing automation means that fewer and faster human-intervening steps will likely relieve the bur- Dr João Fonesca 32016