El galardón Larsen-Chu Award, otorgado por la Society for Color and Appearance in Dentistry (SCAD), pretende reconocer y promover la labor de los jóvenes protésicos dentales. Los candidatos tuvieron que demostrar previamente sus aptitudes prácticas y sus conocimientos técnicos ante el comité adjudicador del premio. A finales de febrero de 2016, tres ganadores del certamen procedentes de los Estados Unidos y Rusia tuvieron la oportunidad de continuar ampliando selectivamente sus conocimientos y sus capacidades técnicas. Fueron invitados por VITA Zahnfabrik a Bad Säckingen (Alemania) para disfrutar de un evento de formación continua de tres días organizado por la propia empresa. El paquete integral, con todo incluido, permitió a los participantes concentrarse plenamente en el riguroso programa de formación continua, si bien este se alternó con diversas y relajantes actividades de ocio.
An Informative Look Behind the Scenes
SCAD Winners travel to VITA Zahnfabrik
Humans and robots
After a demonstration of the robotic workflow, the two dental technicians were impressed to see how quickly workers were able to manually insert the artificial teeth. After watching, it was a special highlight for them to fabricate their own VITA PHYSIODENS denture teeth. The surprised guests quickly learned that it’s not easy at all to insert dental necks, dentine and enamel into the press molds analogous to a natural tooth anatomy, even for Certified Dental Technicians. The winners kept their self-made sets of VITA PHYSIODENS teeth as souvenirs.
Background knowledge for competition
An inspection of the production of furnaces and digital shade taking devices followed. The structure and function of VITA furnaces and the VITA Easyshade V were carefully explained and demonstrated. In a final scientific lecture, Anne Stephan, marketing manager for shade communication, provided new insights into color perception theory and the functional principle of digital dental shade determination with the VITA Easyshade V. With his presentation “Aspects of Material Science about Zirconia and VITA VM 9 Veneering Ceramic,” Dr. Michael J. Tholey, Head of Technical Service, supplied the participants with detailed background knowledge about the materials they were going to use for the live workshop with a patient.