Newswise — New technologies and products to be used in the future by your dentist—from conventional dental materials to same-day crowns─will now be evaluated by professors and students at the Dental School of the University of Maryland,Baltimore.
The American Dental Association (ADA) has named Maryland and three other dental schools as partners with the association's new Professional Product Review (PPR).
"Maryland was the true pioneer for this program. It was the first to see how the ADA Professional Product Review can benefit both the faculty and the students by bringing the new technology right into the school," said Mandy Chia, DDS, MBA, director of the ADA's PPR.
ADA then enlisted the University of Alabama, Birmingham School of Dentistry; Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry; and University of the Pacific School of Dentistry, she said.
According to the ADA, the new partnerships will enhance the PPR's plans to expand their product review and evaluations to include clinical techniques, dental therapeutics and new and emerging technology.
The ADA has endorsed the University of Maryland Dental School's proposal to conduct scientific evaluation of new digital technologies to produce dental restorations to fabricate all-ceramic inlays, onlays, crowns, and veneers. "This is a pilot and the first of many projects in collaboration with the ADA in developing new technology," said Louis DePaola, DDS, MS, professor and project liaison with the ADA for the PPR at Maryland.
Equipment from four manufacturers will be evaluated by faculty and students, who will compare, for example, a crown made digitally to one made in conventional fashion. The School will run comparative studies with Scanning Electron Microscopy, 3D laser scanning, and Micro CT X-ray tomography, in cooperation with the mechanical engineering department at University of Maryland, Baltimore County in Catonsville and the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg.
For the first time, the University of Maryland Dental School has introduced digital dentistry into its preclinical curriculum. "It makes great sense. It is truly the future of dentistry," said Gary Hack, DDS, associate professor at the School. "This technology, which utilizes a digital impression and can produce a final restoration in less than an hour, is growing in popularity."
"We have a new kind of student," said Christian Stohler, DMD, DrMedDent, dean of the School. "They are part of a digital revolution. This is the first time in history when we have a generation of students who can outsmart their teachers when it comes to technology."
The PPR has been published in a quarterly ADA newsletter since 2006 and now includes more than 2,500 dentists nationwide. The number will undoubtedly grow by including academic faculty and students said, John Burgess, member of the ADA Council on Scientific Affairs and assistant dean for clinical research at UAB. "What I envision is the opportunity to expose dental students to equipment that they will use in the near future. This definitely has added value for our students in that they will be able to show practicing dentists the technology," Burgess.
Hack elaborated, "we are often asked what will happen to our students who join dental practices that are not incorporating the cutting edge technology we teach. I say our students represent a conduit to the future. They will be the driving force of the profession, whether they are working with electronic patient record keeping, digital radiology, digital restorations, or digital dental chairs."
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