If you haven’t noticed already, dentists tend to be technology nuts. We’re always looking for the next and best way to provide patients with better versions of dental solutions such as crowns, dentures and dental implants. The advancements in dental tech over the last few decades have been truly incredible, and we are starting to see signs of the next wave of advancements: the integration of 3-D printing into dental care.

Many dentists are already using a form of computerized manufacturing in the form of computer-controlled milling machines. These machines can carve custom crowns or bridges out of a block of ceramic or porcelain, based on the information provided by a digital 3-D model that comes from a scan of your mouth.

3-D printing for dentistry will also work off a digital 3-D model, but instead of telling the machine to carve away material, the printer will be told to add material. Most 3-D printers work by extruding very thin layers of material, one on top of the other, to form a three-dimensional shape. As of now, these printers primarily use plastic materials to print. Many companies are working on developing and improving dental-grade plastics and resins that will work in a 3-D printer and look natural.

Dentists and dental laboratories are already using 3-D printers to create models of patients’ teeth for treatment planning purposes, surgical guides for the accurate placement of dental implants, clear orthodontic aligners (like Invisalign®) and dentures. Using 3-D printers to do this is much more cost-efficient and less wasteful than traditional methods.

The possibility of 3-D printing of affordable dentures is particularly exciting. For those who have lost their natural teeth and cannot afford or are not eligible for dental implants, dentures are a common solution. However, creating dentures is labor intensive, which ads to the cost. With 3-D printing reducing the time, labor and materials cost of manufacturing dentures, we may be nearing a future in which the cost of a high-quality set of dentures falls significantly.

Just like dentistry, 3-D printing is a rapidly advancing industry, and we’re sure there are new discoveries and techniques being tested everyday. As part of our pledge to bring you the best possible dental care, we’ll stay on top of all the latest technology in dentistry and invest to bring you the best right here in our practice, as soon as it lives up to our high standards of care.

Digital dental scanners benefits:

• A clear picture of what the dentist sees in real time. No more waiting.
• A transparent & honest analysis of your mouth & teeth.
• A better understanding of your oral health & treatment options.
• No more impressions.
• Scans are free of charge!

Learn more here: https://youtu.be/enB-KojDiTc

Dentists no longer use Novocain when treating patients. No, this doesn’t mean we’ve somehow managed to make dentistry completely painless (we wish!). We mean that Novocain is no longer the anesthetic of choice for dentists. In fact, it hasn’t been for many years.

Novocain is actually a brand name for procain. It was first created in 1905 and started being used in dentistry soon after. Believe it or not, before that, cocaine was the anesthetic of choice for procedures! Novocain was more effective and didn’t have addictive side effects, so it won out as the anesthetic of choice for many decades.

However, there was a serious side effect that caused dentists to start moving away from using Novocain. Many patients can have allergic reactions, sometimes severe, to the chemical that results as Novocain is processed by the body. By the 1980s, barely any dentists were using Novocain anymore. For the past 30 years or so, lidocain has been the local anesthetic that most dentists use. Lidocain was invented in 1943 and is sometimes called cylocain or lignocain. There are few other local anesthetics that dentists may choose based slight variations in their effect, such as being longer lasting.

Lidocain the same way that Novocain does: it’s a nerve blocker. When lidocain enters nerve cells, it prevents them from sending pain messages to each other, therefore the feeling of pain can never reach your brain. Think of it like an email spam blocker. The spam keeps being sent, but it never reaches your inbox so you never see it or experience it.

Local anesthetics like lidocain are usually used in restorative dental procedures, such as crowns or root canals. They are also used in combination with nitrous oxide (laughing gas) or general anesthesia in more complex procedures such as surgical extractions and placing dental implants.

So if Novocain hasn’t been used dentists in a long time, why do patients under 30 still know what it is and ask about it? Our best guess is that patients have heard about it from their parents, grandparents, or TV and movies. If you’re curious about local anesthetic and how we might use it in your treatment, please feel free to ask!