Computer‐assisted technologies used in oral rehabilitation and the clinical documentation of alleged advantages – a systematic review

Abstract

The objective of this systematic review is to identify current computer-assisted technologies used for managing patients with a need to re-establish craniofacial appearance, subjective discomfort and stomatognathic function, and the extent of their clinical documentation. Electronic search strategies were used for locating clinical studies in MEDLINE through PubMed and in the Cochrane library, and in the grey literature through searches on Google Scholar. The searches for commercial digital products for use in oral rehabilitation resulted in identifying 225 products per November 2016, used for patient diagnostics, communication and therapy purposes, and for other computer-assisted applications in context with oral rehabilitation. About one-third of these products were described in about 350 papers reporting from clinical human studies. The great majority of digital products for use in oral rehabilitation has no clinical documentation at all, while the products from a distinct minority of manufacturers have frequently appeared in more or less scientific reports. Moore's law apply also to digital dentistry, which predicts that the capacity of microprocessors will continue to become faster and with lower cost per performance unit, and innovative software programs will harness these improvements in performance. The net effect is the noticeable short product life cycle of digital products developed for use in oral rehabilitation and often lack of supportive clinical documentation. Nonetheless, clinicians must request clinically meaningful information about new digital products to assess net benefits for the patients or the dental professionals and not accept only technological verbiage as a basis for product purchases.

First experiences with patient‐centered training in virtual reality

“…The simulator consists of a robotic arm with a dental air rotor as active component, which provides haptic force feedback to the user with a feeling closely resembling all dental tissues, including the pulp chamber, as well as the different cutting behaviors of the various burs . Notably, this VR‐haptic dental trainer enables interaction with intraoral digital impression devices …”

Prosthetic Rehabilitation of an Edentulous Patient with Microstomia Using Both Digital and Conventional Techniques: A Clinical Report

“…In recent years, there has been a shift from the use of analog applications to digital technologies in the field of dentistry. Today, it is possible to make impressions and design and fabricate dental restorations using computer‐aided technologies . These technologies not only reduce time spent chairside and at the laboratory, but also provide greater accuracy of definitive restorations .…”

“…With the use of intraoral scanners for impressions, tray selection and adaptation, infection transmission from patients, and shipping of the impressions to the laboratory are eliminated . The efficacious use of computer‐aided design and computer aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) in tooth‐ or implant‐supported fixed prosthodontics has been well documented . However, the application of CAD/CAM in complete denture impressions has been limited.…”

Who can claim the ownership to the blueprints of my body parts?

“…CAD‐CAM in dentistry evolved 30 years ago for making intracoronal ceramic restorations, whereas the predominating CAD‐CAM–based devices today are intraoral crowns and prostheses that have been milled, printed, or sintered. The turnover of new technologies is rapid and diversified and pushed by hardware and software innovations, lower prices, and the seamless exchange of data facilitated by open data file formats (Jokstad, ). We can expect that newer and better dental biomaterials that are suitable for CAM will emerge as a response to the need for better clinical performance than current materials on the market.…”