Next year in March, the International Dental Show will happen again in Cologne.
This is the largest dental show in Europe and probably in North America (although that's debatable), but it is an absolutely extraordinary site and something that is impossible to get around in the days that it's open.
For those of you who have never been and to speak to people who have been, they will describe this extraordinary and enormous exhibition that you cannot fathom the size of, and you will think that they're exaggerating, but they're not.
I only went for the first time ever just over a year ago (which seems to me to have been a massive failing), but I would suggest anybody who's serious about dentistry and the future of dentistry to go to the next one.
All of dentistry for the world is here, and all of the innovations that are coming down the track are visible to see (although perhaps not as cutting edge as the Shanghai dentistry show).
What you will find now, though, is the opening up of the robots in dentistry.
There is a mad flurry, a race now to provide the robot implant placement.
At the moment we have static guided surgery (a printed surgical guide with computer planning). We've already moved into dynamic guided surgery where the handpiece is guided on the computer screen, but where we're actually going is a robot.
These are now widely available in some parts of the world, and last week in Vietnam I saw Professor James Chow of Hong Kong presenting the future of robotic dentistry and what's going on there.
It's way, way further on than you think.
I saw the Chinese robot manufacturers in Singapore 2 years ago, and I thought that they were a bit tin-pot and weren't going to get anywhere, but the progression is so quick and they're so clever that it's already here and deep into use and adoption in some parts of the world where the regulations are less strict than ours.
The second one, though, relates to a press release from the University of Basel last week.
The tooth prep robot is nearly there.
It's a tiny little thing that puts into your mouth, and you close your teeth; you mill the crown before the patient comes and then prep the tooth to the crown; the grounds then fitted. It takes almost no time at all.
It's been in development for about 3 years, this now, and quite a lot of money's been spent on it, but it's arrived.
If you add into that the potential for AI to guide the robot, you have so much possibility moving forwards that the way that we'll put implants in and prepare teeth (and diagnose from IOS scans) in 5 years will be completely and utterly different to that which we see now.
Are you ready?
If you're not, it's gonna pinch when it gets here.
Blog Post Number - 4595