Modern digital dentistry with Dr Christian Moussally
Dr Christian Moussally
WDC Speaker on Chairside CAD/CAM in General Practice and Computer Assisted Implantology
How do you implement ‘common sense dentistry’ in your own practice?
Digital dentistry helps provide more comfortable treatments for both the patient and the practitioner. Treatments become more reliable, less practitioner-dependent and faster in terms of overall duration and length of each appointment. That’s what I call ‘common-sense dentistry’.
In my daily practice, I use a chairside CAD/CAM system to extra-orally manufacture mock-ups that can be bonded to the teeth during a second appointment, which greatly simplifies the protocol of vertical dimension increase. In the same way, some materials, like high-performance composites that can only be manufactured with a CAD/CAM system, allow us to make ultra-thin table-tops, sometimes without the need of any tooth preparation.
CAD/CAM was initially reserved for prosthetics but is now being used in other fields of application, such as implantology. What explains this shift?
The shift from prosthodontics to implantology can be explained by three factors: At first, the computing capabilities of the digital systems that we had at our disposal only allowed for small prosthetic restorations. Today, high-performance computers have made it possible to combine information from CAD/CAM systems and imaging systems. What’s more, the democratization of implantology means that this specialty is now practiced by many general practitioners.
The evolution in the use of CAD/CAM has led to an unmatched level of accuracy and safety in implant surgery, including in cases that may seem simple.
What is the main message that you would like to convey to your audience during your sessions in San Francisco?
I would like the audience to come away with a solid of understanding of why we must master the use of digital dentistry in all the fields of application that it offers today. For a long time, CAD/CAM was considered a tool. It was up to us to adapt this tool to our clinical requirements.
"Nowadays, technological advances have made digital dentistry no longer a tool, but an integral part of how we practice."
The use of modern techniques requires a mastery of the biomaterials used in terms of mechanical and optical properties and a perfect knowledge of the protocols of their implementation.
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