U-M dental students soon will be working with some of the most advanced technology in the industry, thanks to a new agreement between the school and the 3M Digital Oral Care Department.
3M and its dental division, 3M ESPE, provided the school with a number of the company’s digital impression-taking systems and related technologies to help prepare dental students for the increasing digitization of patient care activities. The tools will be deployed in the predoctoral curriculum of the School of Dentistry.
3M ESPE’s digital impression-taking system, the Lava™ Chairside Oral Scanner C.O.S., makes up the foundation of a new digital workflow in restorative dentistry. 3M ESPE provided the School of Dentistry with 14 of these units. The technology is so new that it is not yet used by many dentists in practice, but it is projected to play an increasingly vital role in dental offices and labs. Dentists who use the tools report increased efficiency, lower remake rates and better patient satisfaction, all of which can make a significant impact on the success of a dental practice.
The School of Dentistry’s 439 students will be trained to use the equipment as part of their preclinical and patient care experiences. The Lava C.O.S. system will be implemented in the preclinical program for second year students as part of their all-ceramic dental restoration curriculum. Students will use the digital impression-taking system during patient care as a part of the third and fourth year clinical program.
“This agreement helps us add yet another dimension to the exceptional learning experiences we provide students at Michigan,” says Dr. Carol Anne Murdoch-Kinch, clinical associate professor and associate dean for academic affairs at the School of Dentistry.
The Lava C.O.S. captures dental impressions with digital precision, and allows dentists to view continuous 3-D video images of the digital impression in real time on a touch-screen monitor. The recent Lava C.O.S. 3.0 software upgrade gives the system powerful new tools for easier scanning, a scan rewind option and an occlusal reduction tool.
In addition to the Lava C.O.S. units, 3M ESPE provided the School of Dentistry with the Lava™ Scan ST, which can convert a traditional impression into a digital format, allowing the lab to use accurate digital tools to design simple or complex restorations. Ten computers will be provided that are equipped with software to mark the margins of a restoration and perform other design functions to help create a precisely fitting restoration.
