All the chairside systems work similarly: you prep the teeth as usual, and then take a digital impression. The process fits the way we work, it’s clinically proven, the materials have proven themselves to be viable alternatives to amalgam and composite, the aesthetics are top-notch, and patients appreciate the one-visit aspect as well as the natural-looking results. Again, this has to do with the fact that CAD/CAM has proven itself in the dental operatory.

The popularity of in-office CAD/CAM has grown exponentially in the last 4 or 5 years-more than in the entire 20 years that it has been available. This is a great thing for dentists and patients alike, as competition between manufacturers usually leads to big improvements such as advancements in the speed, precision, accuracy, practicality, ease of use, and profitability of their respective products. Two of them are capable of designing and milling the restoration at the chair, while the other 2 are only digital imaging units. There are currently 4 systems in the chairside-imaging arena right now. So here I am, nearly 23 years after the first chairside CAD/CAM restorative system entered the market stating that chairside CAD/CAM dentistry has now become “mainstream” dentistry. And to be sure, this takes a lot of time time for clinical studies to be completed and published, and time for the materials to be proven clinically viable in real-world application. We want to be sure that the technology is not only practical, but that it’s also clinically sound in all respects. That’s not to say dental professionals are slow to adopt new and improved ways of doing something-we are just overly cautious (and rightly so) about changing our ways until we are absolutely, positively, without a doubt sure that the product or procedure is going to withstand the test of time. There’s a saying that “everything in dentistry is new for 10 years,” meaning when a revolutionary new product category is introduced to the dental market, it takes a minimum of 10 years for the industry to actually embrace it and make it mainstream. That’s a bold opening statement, but I’m sticking to it. Computer-aided design (CAD)/computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) is taking over dentistry.

Blue cam sirona