Clinical trials

With a demographically ageing population and increasing patients with missing teeth, the demands on the healthcare system are set to further increase. This project is to prepare the public dental healthcare system to remain sustainable in terms of efficiency of denture production and healthcare manpower (lab technicians, clinician and operation staff). It aims to understand and improve denture fabrication productivity, enhance the treatment efficiency. This new model of care is a change from the current staged treatment process to batch processing assisted by new manufacturing methods, with the goal of improving sustainability and effectiveness of existing clinical and dental lab capacities.

Tooth loss is a major chronic problem in dentistry and edentulous elderly endures poorer quality of life worldwide. Removable partial dentures (RPDs) are the most widely accepted and cost-effective treatment for patients to restore oral functions. RPDs contain three components including the metal framework, denture base and acrylic teeth. Conventionally, RPD fabrication involves tedious clinical and dental laboratory procedures and is time consuming, labour-intensive, and often imprecise, therefore incapable of meeting the growing demands of RPD by an ageing population. The challenges to achieve a high quality and high-throughput RPD service lie in three aspects: 1) accuracy in capturing oral profile; 2) immediate oral information analysis and device design, and 3) automation in production.