Current status of digital dentistry in dental laboratory

Abstract

The fourth industrial revolution has been markedly changing our lives. This revolution can make considerable changes or rearrange existing occupations, and create new businesses and services beyond existing industry frameworks．In the dental laboratory, working procedures have been markedly changed by digital equipment such as CAD/CAM, and 3D printers. Although we often hear that dental technicians will not have a future due to mechanization, I do not think so. Surely, most simple manual work will be performed by machines. Then, what are things that machines are not able to do? What should we do? Thinking seriously, we can see what needs to be done. It seems that dental technicians will have a more attractive profession due to their handling of digital data. Also, in the digital era, communication skills will be more essential. I would like to introduce our company’s attempts, and I hope this will help when thinking about the digital dental technician’s rolle.