Introduction
This course was established by the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Kochi Medical School, Kochi University, which is the core hospital for dental care in Kochi Prefecture, in collaboration with YAMAKIN CO., LTD., a comprehensive dental materials manufacturer based in Kochi Prefecture, to develop and research the next generation of dentistry that can contribute to efficient and patient-friendly community dental care by incorporating digital technology and ICT to cope with the super-aging society.
More specifically, the aim of the project is to establish a series of technologies that will replace the traditional use of clay-like impressions to take a mold of the teeth by using an intraoral scanner to take photographs of the inside of the mouth, design prosthesis on the computer based on the data, and then use a milling machine to fabricate the prosthesis according to the design.
At the same time, we aim to establish a system for exchanging data from intraoral scanners and orders for dental work and dental materials between dental institutions, dental laboratories and dental material dealers.
By developing the next generation of dentistry incorporating such digital technology and ICT, we are convinced that we can contribute to the dentistry in Kochi Prefecture, a prefecture with an advanced aging population.
