My son was recently in Israel on a tour and took this photo. He had a lot of impressions seeing the old ways of life lived for centuries and millenia versus new settlements and ways of living showing the stark contrast between the two ways of life. In dentistry we have done things the old ways for decades and sometimes that is still the best way. But, with modern advancements and technologies the new ways are showing so much improvement over the old ways. For example, we still make a denture in much the same way as we have over the last 50 years. Recently, with digital technology getting better there is now the possibility of a “digital denture” with a scan of the gums and the ability to print a duplicate denture if the denture is lost or misplaced. I personally feel we are almost there, but not quite yet so I am making dentures the conventional way, but probably not for long. The old way was to “drill and fill”. We used amalgam or silver alloy and drilled out all the grooves and healthy parts of the tooth, but now we have cracked teeth and broken teeth, root canals and loss of teeth as a result. Today, the new way is “minimally invasive” where we use air abrasion or only take out the unhealthy parts of the tooth and preserve the enamel and healthy parts. We do maintenance and recare and catch problems earlier on. I am still taking impressions, but soon am planning on taking digital impressions with a camera. Our models are scanned and the majority of crowns we fabicate now are digital using computer and Cad cam 3D printing. We are doing this, as well, with some of our implant restorations with incredible fit and results. We have 2D Xrays, but now there is 3D Xrays available to show us more information which we need to make better decisions on how to restore the mouth to a healthy state much more safely. It is amazing how fast the changes are ocurring and exciting to see what the future has in store. We are on the cutting edge of all this. If you would like to know more, we can help you decide if the old ways are the way to go or there is no question but we need to go with the new way of doing things. Call us at 360-256-1202 if you have any questions about your dental health.
