Week in Review: Clear aligners vs. braces | Digital alignment | Teledentistry

Dear DrBicuspid Member,

When you have to decide between clear aligners and traditional braces, which treatment option is best for your patients? Researchers reviewed multiple studies to evaluate the pros and cons of both tooth movement techniques. What they found may assist you in helping your patients make a better decision.

Digital 3D scanners are revolutionary tools for measuring changes in orthodontics, periodontics, and tooth wear. But when it comes to obtaining the proper alignment from the data, there hasn't been much research. To fill this gap, researchers compared three different alignment techniques to see which was most accurate.

No doubt this has happened to you: You refer a patient to a specialist, but then the patient doesn't schedule with the specialty practice. Rather than leaving the patient to make the call, Jill Shue of Custom Dental Solutions outlines a plan using teledentistry to make needed treatment more likely to occur.

Finally this week, is the Caries Assessment Spectrum and Treatment (CAST) index useful for evaluating large groups of children? Moreover, are the results linked to familial factors, such as parental oral health knowledge, education, or socioeconomic status? To learn more, researchers assessed hundreds of 6- and 7-year-olds.

The 2019 Chicago Dental Society Midwinter Meeting begins next week. We'll be starting our coverage on Tuesday with part one of our feature on new products to see at the conference.