The future of implant dentistry is shaped heavily by emerging technologies, materials, and techniques, all designed to create excellence in dental implant treatment. Productivity will be maximized, actual chair time for the treatment provider as well as the patient will decrease. Digitalization will be the basis of merged data sets, used in conjunction with a single design software that combines surgical and prosthetic aspects of treatment.
The future dental implantologist will need to master not only the precise execution of surgical and clinical procedures, but will also need to be an expert in acquiring and managing data sets. Treatment decisions will be based on established evidence-based outcomes, and the practitioner will need to have the expertise to not only diagnose correctly, but to assign the most predictable, successful and cost efficient treatment strategy, preferably in the form of simpler and more standardized treatment protocols. Treatment will occur in clinics that have the capital to invest in the technology required, and that can attract, train and retain the “dental designers”, the technicians of the future. Cad-cam generated monolithic restorations that can be fabricated with minimal technician involvement will be the new standard. Single and smaller restorations will be produced within the facility, while the more complex restorations will be milled centrally.