Re: New trend

JJ,
I was intrigued by your post and forwarded it to one of my golf
buddies who previously taught dentistry at USC. He told me that this
system was invented by a French engineer in the 1980's, and perfected
by a Dr. Jack Preston at USC. The concept is pretty unique.

Marv Frankel
Los Angeles

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "jjfear" <jjfear@i...> wrote:
>
> I haven't posted for months, since my vision has deteriorated to the
> point I no longer do shop work. But I ran across this post from
> Andrew Tobias, author and investment, "expert?" But I immediately
> thought of this group. So here it is:
>
>
> empty.gif (854 bytes) empty.gif (854 bytes)
> Daily Column
>
> Ah, Brave New World of Dentistry
> (And with this ring . . . )
> Published on February 07, 2005
>
> How I cracked half my molar eating a slice of tomato will go down in
> The Annals of Dental Mystery as its own separate chapter. But when
I
> settled into his chair, my dentist announced that I needed a new
> crown, which I always modestly accept, being the King of Patience.
> Because we dental patients know the drill: First visit is for
> preparing the tooth and making that delicious and oddly cold
playdough
> impression to send to the lab, and for installing the awful ill-
shapen
> and bad-tasting aluminum "temporary." The following week is for
> getting that awful biting-the-inside-of-your-cheek deal going.
Second
> visit is for finding out that the lab didn't make the crown quite
> right. Third visit is for – ta-da! – successfully fitting the crown
> and handing over $1,000, give or take, for your regality.
>
>
>
> No more.
>
>
>
> Without even bragging, my dentist (who – a little journalistic
probing
> revealed once I was allowed to talk – is just one of 40 out of 7,000
> in Florida to have this technology) wheeled over a cart with a
control
> panel and computer screen, displaying the 3D image of my tooth and
> designing the crown right in front of me, like Leonardo Da Dentist.
> Then, when it was perfect – get this – he clicked GO and sent the
> instructions to a milling machine in the backroom, which set about
> sculpting a small porcelain block into the precise crown that had
been
> specified.
>
>
>
> Anyone under 30 will know this as "CAD/CAM" – computer-aided
design /
> computer-aided manufacture. But instead of milling the prototype
for
> a new carburetor, they were milling my tooth #14 (which I call
Herbie).
>
>
>
> (As you probably know, your teeth are numbered. You start with the
> top right wisdom tooth way in the back, which is #1, and go all the
> way around to #16; then drop down to #17, the wisdom tooth right
under
> #16, and back around to the right. Those of us whose wisdom teeth
now
> hang on leather bands around our necks [to intimidate potential
> adversaries] count from #2 to #31, skipping #16 and #17.
William "the
> Refrigerator" Perry, who needs nothing around his neck to
intimidate,
> and is available to appear at your next event, seems to be missing
#6
> thru #11 and #22 thru #27.)
>
>
>
> Within a second or two of my dentist's clicking GO, the computer
> reported that milling would take 17 minutes – the way your browser
> estimates the length of a download – which gave me time to return
some
> phone calls ("I'm at the dentist, but I have 13 minutes and 12
seconds
> left to talk") and my dentist time to go out for a beer, or whatever
> dentists do in these circumstances. (Call their brokers, more
likely.)
>
>
>
> In he came 17 minutes later, bing, bang, boom . . . and then . . .
> after the ritual "bite down, chop-chop" so many of us are familiar
> with ("No, it's still too high," you say, ten or twelve consecutive
> times, feeling increasingly embarrassed and guilty for being so
> difficult, when, really, what have you done wrong? But what if he
> keeps drilling deeper and deeper to make the fit and goes all the
way
> through the crown to your nerve or – worse – breaks the crown and
you
> have to start all over again? Could it be you are just being
> difficult? Or are setting your bite funny because of the
Novocain?) .
> . . it was perfection.
>
>
>
> A crown in a single visit.
>
>
>
> To find a dentist near you who's made the $100,000 investment and
> taken the training to master this system, click here. (The link's
in
> the box at lower right.) Despair not if you don't find one; the
> listing is incomplete. Your own dentist may be off at CAD/CAM
school
> as we speak. Thank you, Dr. Nassery.