So here's my take.....TECHNOLOGY IS HERE FOR DENTURES. WHO HASN'T SHOWED UP YET IS COMPETENCE IN THE OPERATORY. Sorry, but our dental students (dentists) coming in to the field simply haven't been educated but by the leading businesses that wish only to sell product and not serve the overwhelming demand by the patient to arrive at what might be considered a comfortable place with their denture or partial. Namely: the ability to eat, function and look good. I work with several (over 100) dentists, oral surgeons, periodontists and the like and in the majority of cases with the exception of only a few, the competence level displayed by the operating restorative has been less than par every time!
What's more, there is no effort, in most cases, by the restorative dentist to educate him/herself by gleaning pearls from the technologist. After all, we only make dentures EVERYDAY!

2015 article Digital Dentures Dominate the IDS 2015
Quote: "The dentist uses the Pala Digital Denture tray system WHICH ENABLES him to take the impression! the vertical dimension! AND the centric relation in a single visit." End Quote. Sounds like a triple tray for dentures. And that's exactly what it is. Watch the video. They make it look so easy.

So, DENTSPLY tried this several years ago. The triple tray technique. The problem was and still is: The operating practitioner does not have the ability to take a simple impression with the absolute clarity that is needed to fabricate an "old fashion" denture, let's say. Let alone capture all three very important elements that are needed to make the patient happy, healthy and send more patients!

BOTTOM LINE:

1. Education and clinical experience needs to catch up with technology!
   
2. Dental companies need to stop capitalizing on the industry's incompetence.
   
3. Dental companies should stop trying to re invent the wheel.
   
4. We all should embrace the foundational concepts of denture making and apply those principles of old - that work just fine.
   
5. The latest and greatest isn't always the greatest.
   
   Tony DeAngelis C.D.T. 2006
   [email protected]
   www.depotdental.com