COLLE GE NEWS
Incorporating digital workflows into the
providing students immediate and
referred to resident clinics in order to best
college’s dental student curriculum and
objective feedback on their work.
support patient care.
patient care is nothing new for UKCD.
Interacting with this software—learning
Faculty and staff have been focused
to manipulate 3D images by rotating,
on exposing students to available
zooming in and out, and reviewing slices
technology and emerging best practices
of the image—lays the groundwork for
for some time now. Even with the
virtual planning software students will
challenges brought on by the COVID-19
engage with in later courses.
pandemic, the college continued to make
students’ digital dentistry experience through a variety of means. Recently, the college added six intraoral scanners of a different model to the DMD Student Clinic floor. With this addition, students will gain
Students continue their exposure to
experience with three types of intraoral
digital as they learn to take alginate
scanners and software—Cerec, Straumann,
“Our role here at the college is to try to
impressions alongside scanning one
and Trios.
incorporate and expose our students to
another, including an intraoral scan
digital dentistry as much as possible. We
of an upper and lower arch and bite.
have been working on incorporating an
Additionally, students engage with
increasing level of technology now for
implant treatment planning software,
over five years,” shares UKCD Assistant
learning to virtually plan a case with a
Dean for Digital Dentistry Dr. Rodrigo
single dental implant with a crown and
Fuentealba.
then a case involving an overdenture
gains throughout 2020 and into 2021.
Students begin their experience with digital tools their first year, using intraoral scanners in the simulation lab starting with a waxing course. Students scan their work and utilize Romexis Compare software to review how closely their wax up matches an “ideal” sample, within a faculty-selected range of tolerance,
with two lower implants, and learn and practice the entire workflow for same-day crowns, from prepping the tooth and designing the case virtually to milling and custom staining the crown—making at least three crowns from start to finish in the simulation lab. During their third and fourth years, students continue to learn, enhance their skills, and apply what they have practiced in the simulation lab on the clinic floor. The goal is to have each student complete the entire workflow and place at least two dental implants, in easier or more ideal cases, utilizing a surgical guide printed in-house. More challenging cases are still
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The college continues to further enrich
As vast improvements have been made in available materials to support 3D milling of dentures and with initial test cases resulting in positive patient outcomes, the college is also working to incorporate teaching and practicing digital workflows to support denture cases into the student curriculum, starting with second-year students. Additionally, planning for testing is underway for 3D printing of same-day interim dentures. “Ultimately, our goal is to allow students to learn and experience creating a complete denture the conventional way, in a hybrid manner, and to fabricate a denture using an entirely digital workflow,” said Fuentealba. As the area of digital dentistry continues to evolve, faculty and staff at the college are committed to staying abreast of improvements and introducing new tools and workflows, the latest software, and digital dentistry best practices to students.
