The Dental Appointment of the Future

David Frazee, Vice President of Digital Systems Technology,
3M ESPE Digital Oral Care

Imagine a patient comes into the dental office in need of a multi-unit bridge. The dentist preps the teeth and takes a digital intraoral scan of the preps and adjacent teeth. During the scan, the dentist utilizes a device like an iPad to show the patient the anatomy and treatment plan, and to access smile design software to illustrate the projected case outcome. When the patient accepts the treatment plan, her case is then electronically sent to the laboratory. She can later access her treatment plan and smile design on an iPad synchronized with the dentist's, as well as track scheduling and delivery of the final restoration from the lab to her dentist's office.

While at one time this scenario might have seemed far-fetched, today’s digital tools are bringing it closer than ever. The future dental ecosystem will look much different than it does today, thanks to the growing adoption of intraoral impression scanners such as the Lava Chairside Oral Scanner C.O.S., CBCT scanning for implant treatment planning, and digitally archived patient records containing digital photographs and X-rays. At 3M Digital Oral Care, we believe we can develop digital platforms that will help dental professionals provide better value for tomorrow’s patients.

One of the challenges the industry currently faces is how to effectively store the vast amounts of digital data being generated so that it is readily accessible to dental team members and patients. The industry is in need of an Internet-based platform that allows data to be managed from any location and does not require the end-user to have IT expertise. One enabling technology is cloud computing—the same type of platform used by Amazon.com and Gmail.

The advantage of this approach is that dental practices and laboratories would not need to make large capital investments for on-site computers with elaborate data management software. In the cloud, data can be stored securely and remotely in a highly organized fashion and remain accessible to the patient and provider of care.
To achieve this, however, standards must be established for key interfaces to deliver custom business applications through what appears to the user as a single point of access. At 3M, we are currently working to help influence and create standards to handle, store, share and transmit imaging and related information with key companies in the dental industry.

The new generation of dental patients and dental professionals is increasingly digitally savvy. 3M ESPE believes that the same types of technologies and protocols enabling digital connectivity, interaction, and access to information will soon be developed for the dental industry. Learn more about digital dentistry.