Contemporary dental CAD/CAM: modern chairside/lab applications and the future of computerized dentistry

CAD/CAM in dentistry has been particularly useful in enabling the fabrication of custom, patient-specific restorations and prosthetics without the need for traditional analog dental laboratory methods. While the optimal use of CAD/CAM technology must be determined on a case-by-case basis, it is important for clinicians to recognize the opportunity to utilize computerized technology in patient therapy to provide more highly efficient, accurate, and potentially ideal outcomes. This article will discuss and evaluate the state-ofthe- art of CAD/CAM dentistry for both chairside and laboratory-based solutions. Current options for CAD/CAM technology in the treatment of patients for comprehensive dentistry along with the most common uses of chairside and laboratory-based applications will be explored. The discussion will also identify recent and future trends in CAD/CAM applications in dentistry.