USING DIGITAL IMAGING TO PROVIDE STUDENT FEEDBACK: AN EDUCATIONAL USE OF CAD/CAM TECHNOLOGY

Evaluating students’ preparations chair side during live-patient procedures has been the standard in dental schools for providing feedback and improving students’ skills. Once the definitive restoration is placed, the student loses the opportunity to critique their work. Evaluating the die for indirect restorations, or taking an impression of the preparation and evaluating the model for direct restorations are other options, but a magnified rendering would enable both the student and faculty collectively to study the preparation with greater clarity.

Using the new CAD/CAM technology, we now are able to record an optical impression of the cavity preparation and magnify it 12 times. The CEREC acquisition unit is needed to capture the image; viewing the image requires that the faculty/student have the CEREC software loaded on their computer. That magnified image can be exported in a file easily read by the faculty and the student doctors.

The cavity preparation may be evaluated for proper convergence or divergence, inspecting neighboring teeth for damage, and/or measuring the cavo-surface margin to the pulpal floor among other elements. Communication between faculty and student, while looking at their own work, will improve their ability to prepare teeth as well as pass required competencies. Improving their skills will increase their knowledge and abilities. Since we have significantly reduced the use of amalgam as a restorative material and will rely on indirect restorations for large carious lesions, learning to identify undercuts is essential. In addition, the ability for students to notice how frequently they mar the adjacent surface will increase the use of protective techniques for the adjacent surfaces. Lastly, the ability to identify undermined enamel will reduce restorative failures.
Using CAD/CAM technology to digitally scan the preparation is a valuable tool for faculty and students.