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(Continued from page 1) In summary, I am very lucky that my dentist is
on the cutting-edge of dentistry and that he
Here is what is involved: The first thing my den- could offer me this computer-based technology.
I can attest from my personal experience that it
tist does is take a picture using a dental pro- is definitely easier, faster, and more accurate
gram which allows him to make a 3D map of my than the old method of creating crowns.
teeth, including top and side views. This allows
him to design the crown chairside right then and
there on his computer monitor, bypassing the
need for filling my mouth with goop and sending
the impression off to a lab. This computer data
is then transferred wirelessly to a milling instru-
ment that carves the crown out of a block of
strong nonmetallic ceramic material. A block of
a harder material is chosen for back teeth be-
cause they are subjected to stronger
Tom’s Tech-Notes
Free Windows Programming Tools
Visual Studio 2019 Community Edition
grinding forces. The Author: Tom Burt, Vice-President, Sun City Summer-
milling machine (about two feet long by one foot lin Computer Club, NV
wide) takes up to 30 minutes to make the crown, July 2019 issue, The Gigabyte Gazette
which is then bonded into place in the patient’s www.scscc.club
mouth. tomburt89134 (at) cox.net
This method is so precise that there is virtually Most of our club members are content to simply use
no risk of damage to adjacent teeth. My crowns software programs that are provided with their
also have a very natural feel because they are computer’s operating system, or programs that they
customized to my bite. They blend in well with purchase or download for free. However, a few may
the rest of my teeth and look and feel natural. wish to have the freedom and flexibility that comes
with being able to create your own custom programs
to do some specific function or to use a preferred
user interface. Programming an application for
Dr. Jeff estimates he has made approximately Windows can be daunting because so much of the
3,000 crowns using CEREC CAD/CAM. Cur- coding effort goes into managing the screen,
rently only about 20% of dentists in the Spring- keyboard and mouse interactions.
field area have this technology, so if you need a
crown, be sure to check if it is available at your
dentist’s office and ask how many crowns they For several years, Microsoft has been providing a
have made using it, since like everything else free version of their Visual Studio developer tools
with computers there is a learning curve. called “Visual Studio Express” or, recently, “Visual
Studio Community Edition”. The newest version is
“Visual Studio 2019 Community Editon”. It includes
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