In our private practice we have recently began implementing more and more digital workflows, starting with photography, Digital Smile Design, and moving on to intraoral scanning and 3D printing. Yet I often wonder if entering the digital era is really a step forward. While the technological advance is undeniable, one may question the added value this really brings to our treatments. Because in the center of all our planning and treatment decision should be our patient. So is digital dentistry a real plus for our patients?

Well, the politically correct answer would be ‘it depends’. It depends on the treatment procedure, and it depends on the practitioner. If we think about dental implants, digital planning has become the gold standard. And not only the planning, but also the actual placing of dental implants today benefits from surgical guides, which allow practitioners to insert the fixtures in the exact (or almost exact) position as the preoperative planning. And going a step forward, a dentist working with a digital lab has the opportunity to fabricate provisional or even final prosthetic restorations even before the implants are actually placed in the patient, thanks to digital technologies. Cone beam computed tomography, intraoral scanning and face scanning are all brought together in order to plan every treatment detail. Of course, the technology is not perfect yet, but technological advances are made at an incredible pace. So in this direction, the digital era clearly has brought a tremendous advance.

However, if we think about tooth supported prosthetic restorations, the digital workflow brings speed, ease of use, but not necessarily a higher quality. For a dental technician skilled in digital technology, this represents a plus, because it eliminates a lot of laboratory steps, it is faster, and definitely more convenient. But not even the companies involved in the development of such workflows do not claim that the digital way is more precise than the analog. Basically, the general understanding is that it is not inferior, but this doesn’t mean it is equal. What it actually means is that the lack of accuracy of prosthetic restorations made in a full digital workflow is definitely higher than in an analog workflow, but it is still acceptable - in other words, there are some errors, but not so big that they should count.

Is there a benefit for clinicians? Definitely! Better communication with the dental laboratory, faster treatment times (once the doctor gets used to the protocol), faster delivery of the restorations to the patient. For the dental lab, the benefits are immense. What about the patient? Well, the waiting times are shorter, but for the moment the treatment costs are the same, since this technology is extremely expensive and needs a longer cover in time, and they are not expected to go lower soon, since all the time new technologies are delivered, so more investments are needed all the time to keep up with the latest in the field.

Probably, in time also the accuracy of the digital restorations will equal or maybe even surpass the classic restorations. With the development of 3D printers and more and more printing materials, it is only a matter of time. So, right now the digital era in dentistry is maybe in its early stages, even though it began several years ago. In few years, it will become gold standard in all medical fields, so maybe a good idea is for more practitioners to start implementing it, at their own pace, but to start, because many years down the road, the gap between digital and analog may become insurmountable.