FOR June 4, 2023
DR. RHODA ENTERO
MEDICAL INSIDER
The Importance of the CAD/CAM Dental Lab
in a Dental Center (PART 6)
We now discuss the Main Appeals of CAD/CAM.
According to Dentistry IQ, the computerized milling
machine usually carves a solid block of restorative
material in order to make the new tooth. The
turnaround for this is rather quick, with everything
being done in what Dental Economics estimates as
40 minutes to 2 hours and 30 minutes. Although this
dental appointment sounds tediously long, the
convenience presented is actually impressive. It
used to take 2 weeks to a month to get your
prosthodontics made at a dental lab.
Dentists and Patients Love The Quickness: Now
you won’t have to wait long. This tech also
makes it possible to All-on-4 to All-on-8 dental
implantation because the resulting crowns are
readily milled or printed for use as needed. You
can do many types of services and procedures
in one trip at the dentist office versus having to
go through a second to fifth appointment back in
the day when CAD/CAM wasn’t advanced
enough to make this all possible. However, they
might prefer to longer manufacturing time
because it’s cheaper or they have coverage for
that.
Dental Technicians and Laboratories: Now that
the dust has settled and CAD/CAM has only
gotten better through the years with cheaper and
more accurate 3D printers, advances in
scanning technologies, better 3D software, and
so forth, does this spell the end for dental labs?
Even though dentists can manufacture their own
prosthodontics in their clinic without the need for
labs, some don’t and only a percentage of
dentists do. Other dentists prefer to simply get
the help of CAD/CAM laboratories in order to not
let go of outsourcing completely.
The Future Is Now: Whenever new technology
arises, the purveyors of the old methods fear
extinction. However, they should instead
embrace evolution and innovation. Some
professionals in the dental industry had more
than a little bit of trepidation and ambivalence
towards the rise of CAD/CAM ever since it first
appeared on the scene in 1985. However, it’s for
the best that change happens, because
otherwise barbershops would still be doing
minor surgeries on top of cutting hair.
Can we say that the CAD/CAM Dentistry Right for
You? Well we have to realize that Technology
marches on and that’s a good thing indeed. The
dental laboratory could now be found right inside the
clinic of the dentist himself, with him or his assistant
doubling as millers or prosthodontic makers. You
don’t need to outsource your restorative options to a
lab any longer. This particular innovation also gets
rid of outsourcing costs to boot or at the very least
makes them significantly smaller in case you’re
outsourcing to a digital CAD/CAM dental lab.
There was originally a fear of CAD/CAM spelling the
doom of dental laboratories and dental technicians,
with dentists printing or milling out dentures or
crowns for use on patients on their own with the
ease of printing out documents on a simple
computer printer. These fears were laid to rest as
CAD/CAM became more ubiquitous, with the
demand for high-tech CAD/CAM tech labs and
CAD/CAM literate technicians rising. Also, the old
method of custom prosthodontic creation still
remains as the cheaper alternative.
Lastly, it’s also important to note that even though
it’s convenient for a dental clinic to have its own
CAD/CAM facility, it’s mostly an optional benefit.
Because of this, many clinics still prefer letting dental
labs provide CAD/CAM services for them.