From Conventional to Complex Treatments, Digital Technologies Are Simplifying Implant Dentistry

In the past decade, the shifting of dentistry into the digital world has become obvious to any dentist or dental specialist. Many restorative dentists now consider themselves "digital dentists," performing all their crown and bridge restorative planning and fabrication in a digital environment. In preparation for this article, the author asked both a prosthodontist and the owner of a large state-of-the-art dental laboratory with whom he has worked closely the following questions: "These days, what percentage of your crown and bridge cases are being done fully digital?" Then, "What is the answer to the same question 5 years ago?" The prosthodontist answered that for crowns and bridges (with some exceptions for bridges), including implants (but not full arches), "close to 100 percent" of cases are now fully digital, while "maybe 25 percent" were 5 years ago (personal communication with Jason Sauer, DDS, of Westchester Prosthodontics, White Plains, New York, March 29, 2024). The dental laboratory owner answered, "My lab is different than others. We're about 60 percent digital, but digital is rapidly increasing. I'd say the majority of labs are 80 to 90 percent digital. Five years ago, we were 70 to 80 percent hand (analog.) We went from three mills pre-Covid to 30 different machines post-Covid (printers, mills, and scanners)" (personal communication with Steven Pigliacelli, MDT, of Marotta Dental Studio, Farmingdale, New York, March 29, 2024). It's fair to say that these comments show that the implementation of digital technologies in dentistry has been dramatic and will continue to expand.