[Trend of collaboration and sharing in digitalized restorative dentistry]

To digitalize restorative dentistry means to digitalize all the approaches involved in the clinical diagnosis and treatment process, in the production of individualized restorations, in the information transmission and communication between dentists and patients respectively between dentists and technicians, and even in the personalized understanding of esthetics. This is a cross-disciplinary issue that interconnects a wide range of topics. The way of understanding the digital tendency and of integrating the-already-digitalized steps into a system have a strategic impact on the development of the dental industry. By following the trace of the development of digital procedures in restorative dentistry, in this paper, we intend to classify the digitalization into two categories as the special and general ones, and will point out the limitations in understanding the digitalization in prosthodontics merely from the perspective of diagnosis or the production of individualized restorations. The role of digitalization in leading the conceptual development and the new possibilities opened up by the integrated digital technologies will be emphasized. Digitalization has changed the way of interaction between dentists and technicians. It is beneficial to the reorganization of medical and technological resources. Its potential in upgrading the dental industry deserves attention. Digitalization promotes the establishment of a collaborative and sharing ecosystem in restorative dentistry, which would pave the way towards artificial intelligence.