Clinical Development and Validation of a Novel Optical Facebow based on Deep Learning

Digital dentistry is the future. Dental patients and dental professionals alike increasingly expect better, more predictable and cost-efficient outcomes for their treatment and incorporating the latest technology is a logical step in achieving those aims.

CAD/CAM and the use of 3d scanning and printing is in common use in many industries, but many dentists and dental technicians have been relatively slow to fully adopt this digital approach.

The barriers to adoption entry are: in the main, high cost, poor accuracy of the scanning technology and limitations of use for certain more complex, but common dental procedures.

3d scanners, which scan impressions or models of a patient's teeth, are in use in both dental surgeries and dental laboratories and. They can simplify the process of creating dental crowns, bridges, implants and dentures., hHowever, it is a common problem too often thethat scans taken of what is a highly complicated anatomical structure are insufficientlynot accurate enough to work from and consequently result in poor fitting dental work which may lead to failure or future complications. Critically, the inability to accurately record the patient's jaw relationship and relate that to key facial landmarks digitally means that much digital technology has limited applications in more advanced restorative dentistry reconstruction and smile design treatment planning.

Overcoming these problems will improve patient experiences, dental health and make a complicated clinical process much more efficientstreamlined.

By undertaking this project, Mimetrik Solutions Ltd, a spin-out company incorporated to commercialise the research and development output of the Digital Dentistry Department of the School of Dentistry at the University of Leeds, will seek to solve the issues commonly seen in all the 3d scanning equipment currently available in the marketplace. Building on over ten years' work by world- leading experts in the field, an advanced prototype that has already been tested and validated in a large multi-centre pilot study will be developed further to ensure the device is ready for commercial manufacture so that the benefits it can bring can be accessed by all.