ORTHO INDUSTRY NEWS Dental Industry To Grow With 3D Printing 75% fewer supports during 3D print jobs, which allows for the printing of delicate partial frameworks for cast-ing. While it’s an exciting time in dental 3D printing, but it’s also one that raises important questions for the future of the $4-plus billion market for dental prosthetics, orthodontic appliances and other dental parts. When you’re in the midst of a technology disruption like the one going on because of “digital dentistry,” it’s difficult to see the entire impact and how it will all shake out, shares EnvisionTEC. 3D printing technology does enable patients, dentists, orthodontists and dental labs to take greater control in many ways, should they want it. U.S. dental laboratories have been losing business for years to labs in Asia, where dental parts have been made by hand more cheaply. In fact, the number of US dental labs has declined by more than half from its peak, to about 6,500 today. But now, 3D printing technology is flipping the business model for dental labs and bringing that business back. The speed with which the dental industry is adopting 3D printing technology may be unrivaled in the history of 3D printing. At Envision-TEC, one of the top three manufac-turers of 3D printers and materials to the sector, sales of dental 3D printers grew 75% in 2016 over the prior year with no signs of slowing. EnvisionTEC’s high-speed Vida cDLM for the dental market requires Universal Definition of Oral Health Explained The FDI World Dental Federa-tion General Assembly overwhelm-ingly approved a new definition of oral health late last year, which is: “Oral health is multi-faceted and includes the ability to speak, smile, smell, taste, touch, chew, swallow and convey a range of emotions through facial expres-sions with confidence and without pain, discomfort and disease of the craniofacial complex.” The definition, together with a companion framework, creates an opportunity for the profession to reflect on what oral health encom-passes and what the implications are of this definition for clinical practice and oral health policy. But why was a new definition needed? Although oral health has been recognized to be an essential component of overall health and well being, it has not been clear whether oral health has meant the same thing for different compo-nents of our profession and for our stakeholders. And if we are uncertain as a profession what we mean, how can we explain There are several other advantages associated with adoption of this new definition of oral health. The new definition echoes definitions used by the World Health Organization (WHO), national dental associations worldwide, and many other organiza-tions and is, therefore, not a revolu-tion but an evolution of existing defi-nitions. The definition also moves dentistry from treating disease to providing care and support for oral health as well as using language that resonates with language commonly used in the health care realm— words and concepts that health care professionals across disciplines can understand and use. FDI represents more than 1 million dentists through its more than 200 national dental associa-tions in more than 130 countries; and the FDI represents dentistry at the World Health Organization. Efforts are under way to assess and measure this new definition of oral health, and work in the United States has started, as demonstrated by the American Dental Association Health Policy Institute. ourselves clearly to our patients, other health care professionals, policy makers, and those others we seek to collaborate with and inform? A common definition can bring stakeholders together to advocate for the importance of oral health; to influence and shape parameters of care, health policies, research, education, and reimbursement models; and to shape the future of our profession. A universally accepted definition of oral health that conveys that oral health is a fundamental human right and that facilitates the inclusion of oral health in all poli-cies was the goal. 6 Spring 2017 JAOS
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society Spring 2017: Page 6
