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This month's opinion dicsusses the impact of modern day technology on the day to day functioning of dental offices. Dr Ajay Kakar takes a futuristic look at what will possibly change in dental offices and how computers and electronic gadgets will play different roles in dental patient management. How Electronic Does The Dental Office Get ?A
couple of hundred years ago the human species evolved
itself to become a self sufficient, surplus food
producing class by the agricultural revolution. Once the
demands of food has been satisfied, progress which was
inevitable took to the form of industry which produced
objects to improve the standard of life for mankind. This
was the industrial revolution. Today is an era of a
further technological revolution. Is is being touted as
the electronic revolution. There
have been numerous sci-fi stories, television serials,
movies depicting a futuristic life which is more or less
electronically controlled. I am trying to make a very
realistic estimate of where will this mind boggling,
electronic technological advance take our dental offices
and the very practice of dentistry. The
fact that computers and a lot of other electronic
gadgetry has become an integral part of our dental
offices is accepted by me as a norm. Very soon, maybe a
couple of decades and we shall be hard pressed to find
decent dental offices which are not computer controlled.
As I see it, the first of the areas of the dental office
management which will become totally electronic will be
the dental administrative component. Our worlds are
evolving dramatically every passing year and basic
communications is changing. Most communication will be
electronic and so will the dental communication. Patient
records are already being stored electronically. The
further expansion will be the storage of graphic data
also electronically. Even though in its infnacy to a
certain extent, dental imaging as well as radiographs are
already available on the electronic media. This
electronic gadgetry is also creeping into our highly
specialised technical equipment. We now have
microprocessor driven chairs and units. A almost
futuristic dental chair is already available with a
screen attached to the arm which shows complete details
of the patient and at the hit of a button or a voice
command sets up the chair positions etc for the
particular kind of treatment to be carried out.
Electronically controlled X-ray machines are a standard
which will set all the necessary parameters almost
automatically. Cat scan machines are a fantastic example
of how electronics is working dramatically in
diagnostics. The
next step from helping up electronically control our
equipment is electronics which will help us control
treatment modalities. The CERAC system is the first entry
of electronics in carrying out some kind of treatment
procedure. In spite of all its limitations the CERAC
system is the pointer towards the trend in electronic
treatment modalities. I
believe that the first of the developments which will
become a norm some time in the future of dentistry will
be electronic impression making. Sometime in the not too
distant future I expect some kind of sensors to be
available which will be linked with the appropriate
hardware and software which will be able to make
absolutely exact replicas of the oral cavities. Mind you,
the technology already exists in concept. It has to be
expanded and tuned appropriately. If the demands exists
the electronic industry will respond and create the
necessary product. Imaging
a impression tray like device with a cable attached to it
or to take it a step further it communicates with the
base computer with a wireless methods. All that you have
to do is to properly position it in the mouth and the
entire oral cavity is recorded digitally. The hardware
and software will be able to reproduce all the structures
accurately and perfectly. Another milling machine could
mill a plaster block to create a total replica. Of
course, I have discounted muscle pressures and pulls and
quite a few other factors dealing with soft tissue
morphology. My projection is that this kind of device
will be about the first of the electronically available
devices for dental offices. Another
area which will be breached by electronics ought to be
the drills we use in dentistry. Today we have air rotors
with variable torque, variable speeds etc which can be
controlled by adjusting various devices manually. I think
it would be wonderful to have a handpiece which
automatically adjusts its speed and torque depending upon
the resistance encountered. It should be able to
differentiate between carious tooth structure and healthy
tooth structure. Such handpieces would making cavity
preps and caries removal much more safer, easier and
faster. Even though, as of today, I am not aware of any
such device, it will become a reality in the future. I
could go on expounding an almost unending list of such
devices which is not my intention in this article. The
point I am trying to make is that even though electronic
control is becoming more and more an integral part of
dental equipment and will become the same for dental
procedures, I do no see it in any way, becoming a
replacement for dental skills. What would change is the
kind of dental skills required. Such equipment is only
going to become an absolutely fantastic aid for the
clinician in rendering dental therapy. It will definitely
improve the quality of the treament rendered, but it will
do so only if the dentist will possess the necessary
skills to handle such equipment. I do not see sci-fi
projections of automated dental chairs where in the
patient opens his/her mouth and an electronic arms moves
into the oral cavity, drills and fills the tooth. Summarising, I only see the electronic revolution creating a further extension, of the brilliance of the human mind which is creating these wonder equipment in the first place, into aiding and enhancing dental therapy for the dental clinician.
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