Bill Schu

The field of computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) has been around for decades, but it has been adopted at a glacial pace. Data from the American Dental Association, from the American College of Prosthodontists, and others suggest that CAD/CAM is used in only 15% percent of dental practices in the US. The ACP suggests that the underlying cause of the slow adoption of digital dentistry was the lack of education and training about the techniques and its potential benefits to patients.

Now, a partnership between Henry Schein, Inc., the world’s largest provider of healthcare products and services to office-based dental, animal health, and medical practitioners, and the American College of Prosthodontists Education Foundation (ACPEF) will commit $1.25 million to an initiative to increase dental education around CAD/CAM techniques.

	CAD/CAM improves the design and creation of dental restorations, including prostheses such as crowns, crown lays, veneers, inlays and onlays, dental implant restorations, and dentures. It can increase the speed of design and creation; increasing the convenience or simplicity of the design, creation, and insertion processes; and making possible restorations and appliances that otherwise would have been unlikely. Yet, its adoption has been slow and painstaking, and the added training dentists must pursue to be able to implement it effectively have meant higher fees for patients and a reluctance on the part of some practicing dentists and medical students to take advantage of the technology.

	“We believe CAD/CAM technology enhances dentistry and we are pleased to support this initiative, which will offer dental students the education and training needed to effectively apply this exciting technology in their future work,” noted Henry Schein Chairman and CEO Stanley M. Bergman in a press release.

	CAD/CAM has its benefits, but it is by no means a panacea. A 2009 

authored by dentists who had been using the technology for more than 20 years pointed out some of its potential drawbacks and noted that, “...in reality, dental CAD/CAM is neither simple nor easy.” Among those drawbacks noted by the researchers is that total cost and operation time had not yet been significantly enhanced using CAD/CAM as opposed to traditional dentistry. The authors noted, however, that the technology also offers significant advantages, including the durability of the devices and prosthetics produced.

	The technology continues to develop, of course, and the enhanced training opportunities as part of this partnership will likely increase its adoption. 

Articles

A new partnership will commit $1.25 million to an initiative to increase dental education around CAD/CAM techniques.

Partnership Will Boost Education on Digital Techniques in Dentistry

The cichlid is a bony fish that can live pretty much anywhere and eat pretty much anything. It is a type of fish whose members are distinguished by a common characteristic—the fusion of the lower pharyngeal bones into a single tooth-bearing structure. You may have encountered a cichlid or two, either at the dinner table (tilapia) or your child’s bedroom aquarium (angel fish).

? Because of those teeth! The loss of a permanent tooth in humans has been a vexing problem for dentists and people as long as there have been dentists and people. While many solutions to the problem abound, simply re-growing the tooth hasn’t been one of them. The cichlid is among very few species that can form successful replacement teeth. Can the genetics behind this ability ultimately lead to the same in humans?

Scientists at Atlanta’s Georgia Institute of Technology have shown in 

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

 that the structures responsible for growing new teeth may remain active for longer than previously thought, suggesting that the process might be activated in human adults.

The key to the research was the identification of epithelial tissues that lead to the formation of teeth and taste buds in embryonic fish. Unlike humans, fish have no tongues, so their taste buds are mixed in with their teeth, sometimes in adjacent rows. Researchers crossed two closely related species of cichlids—one that eats plankton and needs few teeth, and one that lives on algae scraped from rock formations, which needs many teeth—and then studied the genetic differences that, after a generation, allowed for the growth of additional teeth. They then used genomic analysis to find genes that are upregulated in the species that grew additional teeth.

Next, they boosted the growth of taste buds at the expense of teeth in some embryos, at a stage past what scientists had believed was the determining point of the epithelial tissue in embryos. Though they have very different purposes and final anatomy, teeth and taste buds originate in the same kind of epithelial tissue in the developing jaws of embryonic fish. These cells differentiate later to form either teeth or taste buds.

It’s a long way from this discovery to the ability to re-grow lost teeth. Even forming a new tooth wouldn’t be a viable option for humans without the underlying nerves and blood vessels necessary for them to work. But it is an interesting illustration of what might be possible far down the road.

Far, far down the road. For the immediate future, your business model is safe!

A new study of two closely related fish species has produced surprising research that could someday lead to technology enabling humans to re-grow teeth.