Dentists can no longer avoid technology

Feb 3, 2009

Editor's note: Helaine Smith's column, The Mouth Physician, appears regularly on the DrBicuspid.com advice and opinion page, Second Opinion.

After attending the Yankee Dental Conference in Boston this past weekend and walking around the exhibition floor, I think it is obvious that dentistry has embraced technology and has reached a new level of providing comprehensive dental care.

The main theme of this year's meeting was technology, and the exhibit hall was filled with sophisticated imaging equipment. Digital impressions, CAD/CAM systems, and cone-beam CT (CBCT) units dominated the show floor, and everywhere you looked was another digital system. The CBCT scans have revolutionized implant surgery and have raised the standard of care. I was so happy to see this because it screamed: Dentistry is (finally) in the 21st century!

The Yankee Dental Conference was modern and had a different feeling than the past years. It was geared for the doctors and was no longer a place for assistants to fill up on free samples. The quality of the courses improved, with lectures given by a number of leaders in the dental profession.

Practicing dentistry at a lower standard of care is going to be more difficult for the dentists who resist change as our patients, the public, our profession, and lawyers require that we practice modern dentistry. The advances in our profession are like a tsunami: The wave of modern dentistry is upon us, no matter how hard you try to deny it.

Educating yourself about the new imaging systems is essential, and embracing technology cannot be avoided. You cannot hide from this much longer. My advice is to embrace it or be washed away by technology and the demand to be a mouth physician.

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