Department of Restorative Sciences

Each first- and second-year D.M.D. student has assigned space in our preclinical laboratory. The preclinical area is the primary instructional area for general and prosthetic dentistry. Each workstation has air and electric handpiece services, video monitor, and drawer storage assigned to the student. A multimedia core provides an instructional center supporting the most modern styles of education. Faculty support stations accommodate small groups of students to aid in instruction.

With the generous support of our alumni and friends, as well as corporate support, the Thomas Winstead Clinical Laboratory offers the latest in laboratory spaces to support our D.M.D. dental students in their laboratory work. Multi-user islands for “wet” activities are supported by comfortable workstations with excellent lighting, electric motors, and fully supplied for model work, setting denture teeth, etc. A large storage locker facility, with space for all third- and fourth-year students, is available for clinical work, instruments, and materials.

Three full-time technicians support the D.M.D. and postdoctoral programs in their restorative work. The technicians support both a teaching component of the third- and fourth-year D.M.D. students as well as the prosthodontics residents and support ongoing fabrication of dental fixed and removable conventional and implant prosthetics and restorations. Multiple 3D CAD design platforms supported with include 3Shape Dental System, Nobel Procera, and Dental Wings with a modern laboratory acquisition scanner. Additive (rapid prototyped 3D printing) and subtractive (wet/dry milling) technologies support the laboratory workflows. Specifically, a two five-axis Roland dry mills are used for Zr and PMMA applications supported by MillBox nesting CNC software and a Quatro evacuation system. Zr sintering and multiple ceramic furnaces support sintering, staining, and glazing ceramic services. For lithium disilicate milling a Planmeca wet mill supported through the Romexus integration suite provides wet-mill options for LiDS it also used to support a ‘same-day’ dentistry workflow option if desired. PFM capability is supported, and resinous patterns can be printed or milled prior to casting within the lab. Additive systems include a low visible light SLA 3D printer and a UV DLP 3D printer are used for models, surgical guides, and other dental applications. Digital workflows continue to be enhanced and supported.

The School of Dentistry is fully integrated into an electronic dental record, SALUD, that has been optimized for our operations and academic requirements. This is accessed by students, residents, staff and faculty throughout the school for an efficient management of our patients. X-ray capture stations are located in the clinics, and all images captured are available for through SALUD integrated with a universal viewing software system MIPACS Dental Enterprise Viewer. MIPACS is also used for all image enhancement needs of the digitally captured and stored radiographs. All of the systems throughout the school also completely HIPAA compliant.

The school of Dentistry’s radiographic services also include several state-of-the-art x-ray systems based on the technology known as Cone Beam Dental CT (CBCT) including an i-CAT Flex V17 for a 25 cm x 17 cm FOV added in spring 2018 to accommodate the expanding needs of patient treatment. Multi-planer and 3D images created from these devices may be rendered in almost limitless ways for a vast variety of diagnostic purposes unavailable to dentists previously. In digital workflows, 3D radiographic imaging is incorporated with digital impressions, scans of dental casts, patient photos, etc. to facilitate treatment planning, especially for dental implants and advanced oral and maxillofacial surgery, or for creation of restorations and prosthetics from computer-aided designs based from this data.