Digital Dentistry for Oral Health

Dear Colleagues,

The Digital Revolution has now fully entered the world of dentistry. Intraoral, desktop, and face scanners, cone beam computed tomography (CBCT), computer-assisted design/computer-assisted manufacturing (CAD / CAM) software, milling units and 3D printers, and new materials represent a great opportunity to improve the quality of our work. Today, we can acquire a whole series of 3D information on our patient, superimposed and combined, and the patient becomes “virtual”. Diagnostic precision reduces errors, and 3D planning of therapies opens the way toward a novel, minimally invasive dentistry that uses compatible and aesthetic materials. The dentist becomes “digital”, where the planning of computer therapies becomes one of the key moments of the profession. In surgery, in prosthesis, in orthodontics, workflows change. Guided surgery allows planning the position of the implants in 3D, on the computer, and transferring it to the patient through the use of static surgical templates, or of dynamic navigation. This allows inserting the implants in the desired position, inclination, and depth, in agreement with the prosthetic rehabilitation project, and in a minimally invasive way (flapless, i.e. without raising a surgical flap). The operation is faster, and the patient's discomfort is reduced. The digital aspect also helps in programming interventions such as the extraction of included teeth, or the removal of cysts. In regenerative surgery, it is now possible to 3D-print customized meshes for bone regeneration, and custom-made bone grafts in synthetic material; finally, it is possible to produce custom-made implants, even for maxillofacial use. In prosthesis, traditional impression with trays and materials is increasingly being replaced by an optical one, obtained with an intraoral scanner. Patients like the optical impression, which eliminates the discomfort of the traditional impression: Intraoral scanners are a communication and marketing tool and make the workflow more efficient. In fact, the files captured with an intraoral scanner are sent by electronic mail to the modern digital laboratory, which is equipped with computer-assisted design/computer-assisted manufacturing (CAD/CAM) software and prototyping machines (milling units and 3D printers), and which designs and realizes various types of restorations, from simple to complex, using highly aesthetic and compatible materials, including monolithic ones, such as zirconia and lithium disilicate. The same orthodontic workflows are transformed, from diagnosis to planning, up to the execution of therapies.

This Special Issue welcomes research and clinical papers that examine how digital technologies are transforming the world of oral health. We aim to receive and publish systematic and narrative reviews, randomized controlled trials, prospective and retrospective studies, as well as case reports, focusing on the impact of the new digital technologies in dentistry. The main topics for the Special Issue are presented below:

• Intraoral, desktop, and face scanners and the data acquisition in digital dentistry;
• CAD software in prosthodontics, surgery, and orthodontics;
• Guided implant surgery;
• Monolithic materials in prosthodontics: zirconia and lithium disilicate and their application;
• CAM, milling units, and 3D printers;
• 3D-printed dental implants;
• Custom-made bioceramics for bone regeneration;
• Custom-made meshes for bone regeneration;
• Virtual and augmented reality in dentistry;
• Big data in dentistry

Prof. Carlo Mangano
Guest Editor

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