Influenced by modern science and patient interests, the revised curriculum weighs heavily toward prevention. “We designed the curriculum to have our graduates do well in responding to the changing needs of the patient.”Īs they become increasingly informed about dental health, patients of the 21st century are expecting more from their dentists. “We discuss ‘Dentist of the Future’ as it relates to our responsibility to serve the ‘Patient of the Future,’” Berg explains. With novel techniques and equipment becoming passé after just a few years, the new curriculum is, at its core, an exercise in keeping UW at the vanguard of dental education. Chen recalls how the first intra-oral scanner he used seemed like something straight out of “Star Wars.” While that scanner was as big as a golf club, the tool he uses today is barely bigger than a Sharpie. UW dental students currently are being taught both physical- and digital-impression techniques as the school straddles the line between a past that isn’t so long ago and a future that isn’t so far away. Also gone will be the fuss of a temporary crown, as well as the requisite return visit to get fitted with the permanent crown. Physical-impression molds could become obsolete. “I predict it will become the standard in two years,” says Joel Berg, dean of the School of Dentistry. The school recognizes that dentists no longer can focus solely on “drill and fill.” At some point in the not-so-distant future, digital impressions will be used not only in extreme cases like Hailey’s but also for making routine crowns and bridges. This fall, the UW School of Dentistry is starting its second year of a new curriculum built around shaping the “Dentist of the Future.” In addition to training students in the modern techniques of dentistry, the new curriculum also pays heed to a revolution taking place in the management of dental practices, with the UW being the first school in the country to devote four years of instruction to the business side of the profession. And that means methods for teaching and training future dentists must keep pace. Staggering advancements in science and technology like those helping Hailey are also rapidly changing dentistry. While the lab mills the new appliance, Hailey, her mother and little sister grab some lunch and explore the University District with plans to return later that afternoon for her final fitting. Now it all can be done in a single day, and the patient’s time in the chair is spent much more comfortably. From physical impression to hand-fabrication to fitting, that process used to take about a week and require as many as six different office visits to get everything right. With traffic, that could take another hour. A courier then will deliver the prosthetic to the UW Dental Clinic. ![]() With staining, coloring and glazing, the entire process will take about an hour. Chen then sends the image files electronically to a lab in Renton, where they are plugged into a software program that mills a block of material into what will become Hailey’s new teeth. The digital impressions taken of Hailey’s uppers, lowers and bite took all of three minutes to scan optically. “Now, the dentist is designing and the software auto-assists. ![]() “Before, you had to design restorations by hand at a lab,” Chen says. Hailey requests her new teeth be whiter, too. Chen uses the computer like an Etch A Sketch as Hailey and her mother dictate aesthetics. ![]() ![]() Similar to a denture without gums, the dental appliance will snap snugly into place over her existing teeth, the scanning device having tracked precise paths of insertion. The intra-oral scan initiates a rapid process for creating a set of cosmetically pleasing artificial upper teeth for Hailey. She has only six adult teeth-two incisors in front and four molars in back-in addition to several baby teeth that stubbornly have held on. Hailey has ectodermal dysplasia, a genetic disorder that stunted her dental development-and arrested her self-confidence. It shows every detail of every one of her teeth-of which there are too few. Behind Hailey’s head, a computer monitor displays the pictures, which have been stitched together electronically into a high-resolution 3-D map of Hailey’s mouth. In reality, it is an intra-oral optical scanner capable of recording thousands of images per second. To Hailey, a bashful 14-year-old with silky brown hair, the wand is like magic.
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