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QUARTER 2 | 2014 | CERECDOCTORS.COM | 17
PROJECT DESIGN
A 28-question survey entitled “The
Application of CAD/CAM Technology
in Military and Private Practice Clinical
Settings” was created using the Qual-
trics Survey Software at The University
of Michigan. The survey consisted of
questions about demographics, CEREC
trainingandexperience,aswellasseveral
clinical treatment application scenarios.
Once the University of Michigan Insti-
tutional Review Board approved the
study for human subjects, the survey
was electronically distributed via three
ways: a weekly military newsletter, a
cerecdoctors.com website blog and via
private emails. Responders were kept
anonymous; instead, each submitted
survey was assigned a random, 16-digit
alphanumeric code. The investigators
only analyzed completed surveys for
this project, with a total of 258 surveys
included in the final data set.
RESPONSE
Of the 258 completed surveys, 191 of
the responders were labeled as the
“private practice” group of dentists. The
remaining 67 of the responders were
currently serving on active duty in a
branch of the United States military. Of
these 67 military respondents, 65 were in
the US Navy. Therefore, for consistency
purposes, only the65surveys identifiedas
Navy dentists were analyzed and labeled
as the “military” group of dentists.
RESULTS: CEREC TRAINING
EXPERIENCE
The survey queried responders about
the degree of familiarity they had with
chairside CAD/CAM and CEREC tech-
nology. The varying “CEREC experi-
ence” was identified as:
• I have heard of CEREC technology
and/or attended a CE course, but do
not use it clinically
• I have completed a basic training
course on the CEREC system and
have limited clinical experience
• I feel competent in the use of CEREC
technology
• I feel proficient in its use and/or
teach courses on how to use CEREC
technology
Figure 1 demonstrates the training
and experience using CEREC tech-
nology based on the clinical setting of
all 256 responding dentists. A signifi-
cantly larger percentage of responding
dentists in private practice (59 percent)
compared to the military (28 percent)
consider themselves more proficient in
the use of the CEREC technology. This
may be a function of sampling bias as the
survey was electronically distributed
through the cerecdoctors.com website,
and it is reasonable to assume that the
website would be frequented by dentists
using the CEREC system. Also, it may
be that the survey was more likely to be
completed by themore active dentists on
the website, who will also likely be more
proficient in their application of the
CEREC system. We must also consider
the fact that the CEREC system has
been available to military dentists for a
significantly shorter period of time than
private practices.
When the data of all 258 responders
was analyzed based upon total years
of clinical dental experience — not
necessarily related to CEREC experi-
ence — those with more years of dental
experience were also more familiar
with the CEREC system. Similarly,
those dentists with more years of clin-
ical experience were also completing
CEREC restorations more often than
those reporting less overall clinical
and/or specific CEREC experience.
The same findings were also noted
when the data was separated into mili-
tary and private practice groups.
That means, regardless of the clin-
ical setting, those dentists with more
clinical dental experience were more
familiar with the CEREC system. This
may be a reflection of the lack of expe-
rience younger dentists may have with
all-ceramic restorations compared to
more experienced dentists.
Private practitioners reported appre-
ciably greater regular use of the CEREC
system in their practices compared to
military dentists. A total of 8 percent of
the private practice dentists reported,
on average, completing at least one
CEREC restoration per week, with 26
percent completing at least one CEREC
restoration per day. Sixty-four percent
of private-practice dentists completed,
on average, more than one CEREC
restoration per day.
In contrast, 43 percent of the mili-
tary dentists reported completing at
least one CEREC restoration per week
with 13 percent completing at least one
CEREC restoration per day, and only
4 percent completing more than one
CEREC restoration per day.
RESULTS: CHOICE
OF RESTORATION TYPE
Themajorityof bothmilitary andprivate-
practice dentists reported using the
CEREC system significantly more often
for crowns than for inlays and onlays.
The trend was consistent between both
groups of dentists. Several reasons for the
FIG. 1 | COMPARISON OF CEREC FAMILIARITY BASED ON CLINICAL SETTING
Does not use CEREC
Limited use
Competent
Proficient
MILITARY #65 | NON-MILITARY #191 0% 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100