ISSN : 0376-4672
A dental implant has been covered by National Health Insurance (NHI) in Korea since 2014. Every year the age group covered was extended and the out-of-pocket payment was decreased. This study analyzed the dental implant utilization rate by the National Health Insurance customized DB during the last 5 years. As a result, the utilization rate has been rapidly increasing steeply. The differences by age and sex in the utilization rate of dental implants were explored. The inclusion of a dental implant in the NHI system contributed to improving the dental accessibility of the elderly in Korea. However, a deep discussion is needed whether it is appropriately provided to necessary patients. The utilization rate will increase further in the future. Therefore, continuous monitoring and critical policy review should be continued.
Dental education is gradually transitioning to competency-based education system, which aims to help dentists achieve certain core competencies by means of various systems, such as curriculum accreditation. This study examined satisfaction with dental school education and the differences in the perceived importance and self-assessment of competencies among general dentists, in an attempt to propose a desirable direction for dental education. A questionnaire was administered to new general dentists who graduated from a dental school within the past 10 years. The results of the survey were analyzed using the Importance-Performance Analysis to understand differences in dentists’ perceptions. Overall satisfaction with education was low in terms of the curriculum’s relevance to actual practice and its capacity for cultivating required competencies. Furthermore, many of the respondents strongly perceived the need to improve dental education. Additional investigations into the satisfaction with education showed no difference. Among the seven key competency domains, dentists perceived Health Promotion to be important and also assessed themselves as having high competence. However, regarding the perceived importance of the remaining domains, self-assessment of competence was low for Professionalism, Communication & Interpersonal Skills, Knowledge Base, Information Handling & Critical Thinking, Clinical Information Gathering, Diagnosis & Treatment Planning, and Establishment & Maintenance of Oral Health. The results of this study suggest that a competency-based education model should be developed and incorporated into dental education to set performance standards and to promote systematic self-assessment in order to foster the development of competence in dental students.
In accordance with Article 33(8) of the Korean Medical Law, it is stated that a medical person cannot open or operate a medical institution by borrowing the name of another medical person. However, the publicity of medical care is threatened by the recent illegal network dental clinics. The purpose of this study is to investigate the actual condition of illegal network dentistry and to analyze the cases and to find out the reason why the prohibition of double opening & operating of medical institution. As a result, the illegal network dental clinics treated less health care insurance treatment such as dental caries and periodontal treatment than general dental hospitals. In contrast, the rate of implementation of illegal network dentistry was high in endodontics treatment and extraction, which could lead to uninsured treatments such as crowns and implants. As a result of Supreme Court precedent analysis, it is concluded that illegal act is not only the opening of a medical institution by borrowing the name of other medical personnel, but also the duplicated operation which has the authority to make decision about management matters of medical institutions. The results of the patient's case survey also showed that excessive dental treatment due to such as dental staff incentive system. In conclusion, the illegal network dental clinics not only threatens the oral health of the public, but also causes leakage of health insurance premiums. In other words, the ban on opening and operating the multiple medical institution should be strictly applied as a strong protection device for protecting the patient in dental case.
With the advances of CAD-CAM (computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing) technology, the field of modern clinical dentistry has been dramatically changed. The first step in the digital workflow for tooth-supported dental prosthesis is a data acquisition with intraoral digital or conventional impression techniques. For the accuracy of intraoral digital impression data, the basic principles of conventional impression should be applied. It is necessary to obtain a good visibility with properly-dried field and well-exposed margin of the prepared abutment. Currently, the equi- or supra-gingival finish line can be recommended as an indication for intraoral digital impression. The scan data are generally exported to '.stl' file format, which has only morphological information of black and whitem while '.obj' file format can store data on color and texture.
Recently, an advanced workflow has been introduced to finish implant surgery and prosthetic treatment in one-day. However, Because of 1. Patient`s physical condition, 2. Surgical technique, 3. Digital technical limitations, the complete completion of one-day implant treatment is practically difficult. Therefore, this paper proposes a "two-days implant digital workflow" that short-time implant surgery and restores prosthetics the next day. Even though it takes more than one day, this workflow is a realistic implant treatment protocol that can reduce the chair time in the clinic.
Digital technology has changed various aspects of the clinical dentistry. The intraoral scanner and Computer-aided design / Computer-aided manufacturing (CAD-CAM) technology are widely used in fabricating fixed prostheses and in implant surgery. These technologies greatly improved the efficiency of clinical and laboratory procedures. With all newly introduced software, devices, and clinical studies, digital technology has been actively applied in removable prostheses. It is now possible to fabricate the removable prostheses more quickly and easily through subtractive and additive manufacturing. Various clinical and laboratory protocols were introduced by many manufacturers. The purpose of this review is to summarize the literature on digital technology for fabricating complete denture with current status and future perspectives.
