Innovation in Dentistry
March 20 is World Oral Health Day. It’s an opportunity to remind everyone of the importance of taking care of their teeth and, for the University of Montpellier, to take stock of the latest innovations in education and care.
Dentistry is a discipline in its own right with a Dental Care Center near the School of Dentistry. In Montpellier, this specialty is fully committed to education, research, and patient care, always striving for innovation, cutting-edge approaches, and excellence for its students and patients.
As a public institution, it is one of the few hospital dental centers in the eastern part of the region that treats all types of patients with multiple medical conditions. Highly innovative, it is the only regional university hospital center of its kind to offer training in both university and hospital settings in digital prosthesis using 3D printing technology that make it possible to design Dentures for patients in just 3 hours. He is also known for his “E-dent” telemedicine project, which has received numerous awards and is the most advanced of its kind in the field of dentistry worldwide. Finally, students receive cutting-edge foundational training with virtual simulators as soon as they enter the college.
Dentistry: An Innovative Component of Hospital and University Care
For years now, dentistry has been embracing digital innovation and robotics. The multidisciplinary team at the dental care center has a fully equipped digital prosthetic restoration unit. This process involves capturing images via optical scanning—rather than using traditional impressions— to design a fixed prosthesis that fits within the patient’s oral cavity to within a thousandth of a millimeter, all in less than 3 hours.
A medical unit—the only one of its kind in France—has been established, incorporating state-of-the-art digital equipment for these innovative treatments. The team comprising this unit is the most advanced in the country in terms of expertise and research and development in digital prosthetics. It also serves as a point of reference for numerous industrial partners in this field to evaluate their latest advancements, thanks to the teams’ tireless daily efforts.
The team is led by two professors of prosthodontics, Prof. Jacques MARGERIT and Prof. Sylvie MONTAL, supported by the department coordinator, Prof. Jean VALCARCEL, and is under the direction of Dr. Michel FAGES and Dr. Jean-Cédric DURAND.
This initiative begins with a dedicated university diploma program and a unique digital platform: “Lyra.” It brings together a wide range of machines and digital technologies concentrated in a single location to provide the most advanced training possible for students and practitioners. It is led by the Dean, Professor Philippe Gibert, who is steeringthe School of Dentistry toward the dentistry of the future.
A Center of Excellence in Telemedicine
Dental telemedicine in Montpellier benefits from advanced expertise. The E-dent project, led by Dr. Nicolas Giraudeau (winner of the e-Health Award at the National Conference on Organizational Innovation in Healthcare), is the world's most advanced teledentistry project. It is set to serve as a spearhead for remote telemedicine between the Care Center and private practice. An increasing number of hospital departments are using this service, including the UCSA and patients in custody at the Villeneuve-les-Maguelone unit.
The teams of dentists involved in clinical research have helped the dental center become a center of excellence for rare oral and dental diseases (“O-Rares”), under the leadership of Prof. Frédéric Cuisinier and Dr. Pierre-Yves Collard Dutilleul.
Other teams, led by Prof. Dominique Deville de Périère and Prof. Christophe Hirtz, are working collaboratively within the proteomics platform at Prof. Sylvain Lehmann’s laboratory to develop new saliva-based diagnostic tools useful in the field of general health, with results that have established the team as an international expert in this field.
Cutting-edge initial training with… virtual simulators!
In 2017, funding was provided for the renovation of two practical training rooms to support the training of future surgeons. In September 2018, two haptic simulators—the first of their kind in France—will be unveiled. Montpellier’s School of Dentistry will thus enter the era of “virtual” education by enabling students to perform all therapeutic procedures and experience the sensations and reactions of patients before actually operating on them.
A public service mission
For years, the dentistry teams have been committed to providing innovative consultations and care to support the oral health of populations requiring specialized care: patients with disabilities or hospitalized patients with multiple comorbidities. In these cases, oral health plays a key role in diagnosing and predicting their overall health. The medical periodontology clinic, initiated and led by Dr. Orti and Dr. Mertens, serves patients from the departments of metabolic medicine, cardiology, obstetrics and gynecology, and rheumatology who have periodontal disease that interferes with their underlying medical conditions.
Equally specialized consultations at the care center—in both pediatric dentistry and maxillofacial surgery—serve hospitalized patients requiring specific approaches essential in cardiology, oncology, or pediatrics.
Thus, the team working daily atthe UCAA (Outpatient Surgery and Anesthesia Unit) provides care—unique on a national level—every day of the week to numerous patients with specific needs for comprehensive oral rehabilitation, without compromising on either quality or long-term durability. It is one of the only facilities in France to provide this type of care.
“All these initiatives and innovations are underappreciated assets, patiently developed through the daily work of PUPHs, MCUPHs, managers, and staff members, regardless of their status. Indeed, they are all committed to our three missions—teaching, patient care, and research—each with their own subspecialties and areas of expertise. For all of them, this is a daily commitment to ensuring the best possible training for students and the best public oral health care that we owe to our fellow citizens of all ages and medical conditions—a strength that must be recognized and relied upon by both the University Hospital and the University! ” conclude Professors Philippe Gibert and Jean Valcarcel.