Gum Trekker
10/01/2007

New software takes dental students and their patients on a unique voyage inside the human tooth.
By Veronica Jauriqui

In a space only millimeters in size, there’s a lot going on inside that tiny enamel-clad structure we call the tooth.  But second-year endodontics resident Leslie Wang still has to convince her patients of why treatments, including root canal therapy, take the time that they do.

“Patients wonder how we can spend hours working on that tiny little object,” she says, “but it is a complicated piece of anatomy.”

New technology in place at the USC School of Dentistry is allowing dental students and patients to bridge that great divide—taking patients to the “root” of the problem with an interactive voyage to the center of the tooth.

The software, Dental Anatomy and 3-D Interactive Tooth Atlas, is designed by Brown and Herbranson Imaging, of Palo Alto, CA, and relies on advanced three-dimensional interactive imaging technology developed by NASA and Stanford University.

By helping patients understand their oral anatomy, Thomas Levy, a clinical instructor in the school’s division of Surgical, Therapeutic and Bioengineering Sciences, hopes that patients will understand what to expect in the endodontic procedure.  Ultimately, knowing what to anticipate will help minimize any fears or anxieties prior to treatment.

“This technology allows us to see in 3D, the rotation of the tooth, what the external anatomy of the tooth is like.  We can look at the internal anatomy of the tooth and compare that to radiographs.  It’s an invaluable educational tool,” Levy says.

The program contains the most complete compilation of information on dental anatomy ever available, including a vast digital library of hundreds of interactive computer models of teeth and thousands of photographs and X-rays.  The database includes an extensive image database of pediatric dentition as well.

In addition to being an important teaching resource for patients, it is also proving to be a useful instrument for dental students who can see the spatially complex regions of the mouth in ways never before possible.

Prior to the software, dental students used a 2D printed atlas.  “But this way we can get a much different perspective of the tooth structure and see it from all sides, including the top down.  These are perspectives you’d never be able to get inside the patient’s mouth,” Wang says.

“As far as a teaching model is concerned, this technology is perfect,” Levy says.

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