Integrating CAD/CAM Technology into the Undergraduate Dental Curriculum

To provide the graduating dental student training in and practical experience with CAD/CAM dentistry and an expanded knowledge of staining & glazing techniques and luting bonded restorations.
CAD/CAM technology has been available to the dental profession for approximately twenty years and has recently become a somewhat routine method of fabricating bonded ceramic restorations in private practice.
There is a growing demand from both patients and established private practitioners for associates with training and experience in this treatment modality.   It is, therefore, incumbent upon us as dental educators to anticipate changing needs and appropriately prepare our students to meet those needs upon graduation.  At present, very few dental curricula contain both theoretical and practical instruction in CAD/CAM dentistry.    The goal of our project was to develop a curricular element for undergraduate dental students that would provide both.  An externship program was developed at the University of Southern California School of Dentistry for fourth year students that consisted of six students who met with one primary faculty once per week for seven consecutive weeks.  The program series has been conducted twice in each of two successive fourteen week trimesters.  The training occurred in both the morning and afternoon clinic sessions in a dedicated clinical environment and consisted of preparing and restoring mounted extracted teeth with CAD/CAM fabricated restorations and progressed to patient treatment as the skill levels of the participants increased. Currently, CEREC 3D by Sirona is the only product commercially available to the profession and has been used exclusively in our program.  All restorations were stained and glazed and evaluated according to established criteria for indirect bonded restorations prior to and after bonding with composite resin (Z100 by 3M ESPE).  The results thus far have been very encouraging in terms of both student and patient satisfaction in limited clinical experience and excellent with regard to the restorations placed on extracted teeth.
It appears quite evident that dental students are capable of applying their fundamental restorative principles to the use of CAD/CAM technology through a focused experience and it is likely that with adequate resources, the same could well apply to at least the entire senior class.