Predicting Future Fortunes
Inside Dental Technology delivers updates on digital workflows, materials, lab techniques, and innovation in dental technology through expert articles and videos.
April 1, 2015
Volume 6, Issue 4, April 2015
Page(s): p. 6
An undercurrent OF whispering, rippling among circles within the industry, is predicting the eventual demise of the traditional dental laboratory. There seems to be no consensus among the whisperers on exactly what factors will bring about the collapse or what the final structure of the industry will look like. Some project that its downfall will be the advancements being made in CAD software. The built-in intuitiveness in terms of ease of use, automated case proposals, and analytic tools that reduce manual operations will, they say, eliminate the need for formally trained, highly skilled dental technicians in the digital production process. That tomorrow’s sophisticated shade measurement tools will be able to replace the human eye in determining the critical nuances of shade, translucency, and surface characteristics present in the human tooth. That fast-paced advancements in automated technologies and new materials brought to market in the future will be too sophisticated, too expensive, and the developments too numerous for most in the industry to afford, adopt, and thus keep pace.
There is no doubt that factors from inside and out are putting pressure on the dental industry and have exacted their toll. Persistent economic pressures continue to keep consumers clenching their pocketbooks and away from the dental chair while the onus of dental insurance reimbursement rates and coverage shifts further away from the insurer and employer, and moves closer to the patient, who must bear more of the financial burden. All factors point to an industry on the cusp of restructuring to adapt for the future. However, regardless of any new structure that the future brings to dentistry, the need for skilled and knowledgeable dental technologists will always exist. The laboratories and technicians of the future just may need to be a very different breed than those of today.
Postmaster: Send changes to Inside Dental Technology, 104 Pheasant Run, Suite 105, Newtown PA 18940. Inside Dental Technology (ISSN 2157-1163 – Print) (ISSN 2157-1771 – Online) USPS 009-330 is published monthly by AEGIS Publications LLC, 104 Pheasant Run, Suite 105, Newtown PA 18940. Periodical postage paid at Pontiac IL 61764 and additional entry points.
Pam Johnson
Editor-in-Chief
pjohnson@aegiscomm.com
