North Texas Dentistry Special Issue 2018 NTD SP ISSUE 2018 DE | Page 30

Texas A&M College of Dentistry WHAT DO GERMAN ENGINEERING AND DENTAL RESEARCH HAVE IN COMMON? by Jennifer Eure Fuentes One prosthodontics graduate student’s research yields images of teeth like we’ve never seen before, shedding light on the use of 3D technology in dentistry. T he GOM ATOS III scanner is one of the most advanced pieces of machinery in the industrial quality-control sector, with its advanced hardware and software shaping some of the most respected names in the automotive and aerospace indus- tries. This optical 3D metrology system is affiliated with BMW, Mer- cedes-Benz, Rolls-Royce and even Airbus. And now, thanks to the research of one prosthodontics graduate student at Texas A&M College of Dentistry, the German company can add dentistry to its list of industries. Dr. Druthil Belur, who recently defended his master’s thesis, isn’t the first to compare lithium disilicate crowns made from the conven- tional heat-press technique versus the CAD/CAM — computer- aided design and manufacturing — technique. What is novel about his research is the fact that Belur opted to compare the marginal and internal fit of both groups of crowns with this behemoth scan- ner that boasts an extremely high level of accuracy, scanning his samples with a precision of four microns. Belur did not have to ship the samples to Germany; GOM’s North American partner, based in Michigan, offered a closer alternative for the automated metrology. Ironically similar in appearance to a 1980s-era boom box, the $280,000 scanner was used to scan the two groups of crowns and subsequently analyze the data with its built-in software using a best-fit algorithm. Belur’s research design generated more than 145,000 points of measurement — by compari- son, the consensus in dental research for analyzing samples is con- sidered to be about 50 — which should put to bed any question of which crown fabrication method attains greater accuracy. “The average measurements with the CAD/CAM group showed smaller variances than those with the pressed group,” Belur writes in his abstract. 30 NORTH TEXAS DENTISTRY | www.northtexasdentistry.com Belur’s technology of choice garnered the attention of faculty throughout the college and his peers across the country. This spring,