Computers; Your Dentist Today

Design your own smile

Will you need a dentist in the future? (I am sure a lot of your do not want to see a dentist in the first place). Lets imagine this; you get into photo cubicle, a photo is taken, then  on the screen you will be given the option to select the color, shape, size and the way you desire from the menu, you check it on your picture , once you are satisfied, click OK, the vending machine will hand you the veneers; wear it and enjoy the pearly smile.

CAD/CAM stands for computer added design/ computer aided manufacture. It is an engineering and computer technology used for decades in automobile industry and had been introduced in dentistry in the last 20 years (Believe it or not most of dental devices invented by engineers).  CAD/CAM is supporting an efficient dental practice with cost effective, time saving, comfortable, and aid in cross- infection control. (Vinothkumar et al, 2011)

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Figure 1: A Ceramic Veneer Created by CAD/CAM

First, I will highlight the most common “traditional” steps that practiced in dental office and dental lab, to create the beautiful smile (veneers, restorations, implants, and ceramic replacements). The dentist will prepare the tooth, and then take impression to create an exact replica in lab. In the dental laboratory, the dental technican will create by carving the desired replacement in wax, and then cast to a metal or ceramic, then fire it in oven. The lab procedures usually take couple of weeks. When it is ready it will be sent to the dentist for final correction and cementation. All the previous complicated steps, and the multiple appointments for preparation, measurements and trial-in, take long time and efforts. Well, not anymore, one-day dentistry is applicable with CAD/CAM.

There is two CAD/CAM system in dentistry classified according to the steps and the location. It could be in dental office or dental lab. The system that supported the one day dentistry is the one in dental office. First the image will be taken with intra-oral camera. This camera is very specific and unique, in-general it should have all those qualities, precision, fast (full mouth image in 3D can be created in two minutes), focus, resistance to fluids and breath.  And the images produced either still or continuous. A still camera will take multiple images which will be stitched together to create the 3D typographical shape. The image acquisition can be taken with laser camera to reflect the light off the tooth structure. Others systems uses a probe with the camera to touch the tooth to achieve the focal length. In the other hand, continuous images or video camera will create the 3D from a video recording the full geometry in one scanning shot. In all the systems the camera is light handheld and easily operated. Furthermore, the pictures will be transmitted, saved and view on the computer monitor. In the screen the patient can see his profile, 3D model of his mouth teeth and the specific tooth/ teeth condition The pre-operative picture of the patient, and the intended post-operative. 3D models can be examined, rotated and viewed from different angles. Interactive animation showing treatment option can be created with few keystrokes.

Figure 2;CEREC CAD/ CAM System

The high resolution images created in raster (bitmapped format). Raster images made of pixels. These high resolution images range in color from 23-32 bits.Some systems' software will change the bitmapped images to vector images (R2V, vectorization). Vector graphics made by lines and shapes which allow further correction or changes in the design. Others may use hybrid forms of combined vector and raster graphics. The analog images will be converted to digital graphics to be displayed. The system software will edit. change, and manipulate the images according to the user performances.(UIC, n.d.). The software database is well structured with normal teeth shapes, the anatomy of the teeth , the occlusion , the prepration measurments in microns, the shades, and the algorithms of the natural teeth sizes and the correllation between upper and lower teeth.

So there is no need for impression, wax-up, carving or heavy oven to create the final restoration. Not to forget the save in time money and staff. Also the dentist can change the  design with a “virtual system” where the dentist can manually by moving the mouse or through ‘‘touch screen” can modify and adjust the restoration before the milling. All these steps can be reviewed and repeated if necessary without the waste of time, material or resources. So if every thing is as required an order will be requested with just a click to start the metal or ceramic (the material used for restorations and veneers) milling. Milling machine is the main part beside the computer and camera to give the sensible final product. Furthermore, the time efficiency feature  is augmented with ability of the CAD/ CAM to receive another order  and design it, while fabrication an earlier processed order.(Potincy DJ, Klim J, 2010)

After milling (which take 5-15 minutes, traditionally in dental lab it takes two days) the dentist can virtually place the restoration on the tooth and check if there is any deficiency or impurities, then  it will be polished and glazed. Then the restorations will be bonded to the teeth and the patient dismissed.

At the end, sorry fellows but still you have to wait for the veneers you want for couple of weeks after your teeth prepared because simply we do not have yet the technology here.

Smile, Life is Good

References:

Thilla Sekar Vinothkumar, Deivanayagam Kandaswamy, and Pallavi Chanana. CAD/CAM fabricated single-unit all-ceramic post–core–crown restoration. Journal of Conservative Dentistry, 2011 Jan-Mar; 14(1): 86–89


CEREC. Retrived at 1st December 2011 from http://www.cereconline.com/cerec/


University of Illinois, Dental Informatics. Retrieved at 28th November 2011, from http://www.uic.edu/classes/dadm/dadm396/Lect2graph05/inform3c104.htm 

Potincy DJ, Klim J.CAD/CAM in-office technology: innovations after 25 years for predictable, esthetic outcomes. Journal of American Dental Association, 2010June; 141, suppl 2,5S-9-S

MBA

Sorry bloggers I am really talking about MBA but not MBA (Master of Business Administration)

I am sure a lot of you like me have used Amazon or at the least visited one of the big supermarkets, you may have or not a shopping list and while you are shopping you will find most of the items you want close to each other. In Amazon it will recommend which items you may be interested in and what the other customers view or purchased beside what you select. So it may induce the customer to buy things may like but doesn’t need in the specific moment. Will this save our time or increase their profit? Well depends on how we want to think about it.

Thanks to the technology, it is called Market Basket Analysis (MBA), one of the applications of data mining, in a simple words it studies the customer purchasing habits then identifies the pattern between a combination of items( and sometimes in what sequence) within the basket then provides cross sell proposition. MBA (or sometimes called Product Affinity Analysis) it is a data mining technique based on a theory that if a customer buy certain group of items (referred by MBA as item-set, the customer is more likely to buy another group of items.

MBA is executed through application software that uses scalable algorithm to process the data and perform operation and eventually provide useful outcomes. Computer collect the data of the transactions (and other related data if available like customer id, specific product, time, location and their demographic information) and through data mining technique called association rule. This based on the rule of IF /THEN; IF the probability that a customer will buy certain thing referred as support, THEN the customer is more likely to buy another thing referred as confidence. They studied the probability that a customer will buy a certain item when s/he buys another item. This can go far, some stores study the relationship not only between the items but between items and the customer’s demographic information. So for each customer the MBA application software will compare all items in a basket with all other items in the other basket e.g. field customer id, product x, product y then count the number of items each combination exists or the period under consideration. And then apply the other factors to understand the more accurate nature of the relationship between the items. (Anbarasi et al, 2011)

It may seem simple to compare the relationship between two specific items in one basket to other basket which is considered as first level basket analysis. But it is more than that, with the growth of business and the large number of products, different stores and globalization. The process of  MBA may be slow or of less significance. Differential basket analysis is the solution to such problem to certain limit which is referred as second level basket analysis. It will produce the desired outcome and thus reduce the potentially high volume of trivial outcomes. The second level analysis is more complicated and advanced, not just comparing   the baskets but also apply the effect of other factors like demographic criteria, different stores, days of weeks and different seasons of the year on that products relationship.(Anbarasi et al, 2011)

Algorithm is the key of data mining in MBA which identify the association rule. The most common algorithms used for performing the MBA are Similis algorithm and Apriori algorithm. Apriori algorithm applies mathematical computation that achieves very good scalability and can handle multiple items in the itemset. Similis algorithm is used for more complex and large set of data, which express the transaction data into a graph based structure and then perform the association rule in a relational table. There are other algorithms like Argwal and Swami that able to compute the support and confidence but very limited to single item .Several software available performing the data mining and most classified according to the procedure of analysis; statistical, machine learning and neural network. Furthermore, many softwares performing the MBA like the Oracle and Net Perception.(Cavique, 2007)

In conclusion, MBA is a successful technology through a software application of data mining with a powerful and positive input to businesses and targeted marketing.

References:

Anbarasi , D. Sathya Srinivas, K. Vivekanandan. Dimension reduction techniques for Market Basket Analysis. IPCSIT vol.6 (2011) IACSIT press, Singapore.

Luis Cavique. Ascalable algorithm for the market basket analysis. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services,vol.14 (Nov.2007) p.400-7.

Android

Android

There should be nothing that users can access on their desktop that they can’t access on their cell phone.
- Andy Rubin, Google’s director of mobile platforms


Google is not anymore a search engine, it is becoming an essential part in everyday people lives, and it makes itself everywhere, anywhere and in everything. The technology is evolving over time and it become difficult to track and follow what is released in the market from computer up to hand-held devices. Smart phone changed not only the face of communication but even our way of socializing.

An operation system is the interface between applications and hardware where operations executed. Android is one of the many operating system of smart phones. Android was initially developed by Android Inc, later acquired by Google to form Open Handsel Alliance (OHI), a group of 65 hardware, software, and telecom companies. Interestingly, “Android” has its origin in the Greek word andr-, meaning “man or male” and the suffix -eides, used to mean “alike or of the species”. This together means as much as “being human”.

Android is a software stack for smart phones and tablets and includes operating system, middleware, user-interface, and key applications it is the first open-source. This is the goal of Google is Reach as much people as possible.
Android operating system is a wireless OS thus called ubiquitous OS is the first open platform thus developers can use the OS to develop applications at no cost, in contrast to iPhone OS which is a closed system. The developer enjoys free environment to access the core libraries and underlying hardware interfaces. Furthermore, the developer can create, improve, and even change existing application provided of course the application grant the appropriate permission. No license, membership or even a fee for third-party applications. At the operating system level, the Android platform provides the security of the Linux kernel, as well as take advantages of the Linux security features through process isolation and a user–based permission model. The kernel enforces security between applications and the system at the process level through standard Linux facilities, by assigning specific user ID. Therefore, applications cannot interact with each other, as well as limited access to the operating system as they run in separate process that’s why Android is multi-process system. This approach is different from other operating systems (including the traditional Linux configuration), where multiple applications run with the same user permissions
Android libraries are written in C/C++ and Java language and include surface manager, graphics, media codes, web browser and the Structured Query Language database
Android applications run on the Dalvik Virtual Machine which was created specifically for Android. It operates like a translator between the application and the operating system. It is fast optimized byte code and written in the Java language. However, applications can also be written in native code. Applications are installed from a single file with the .apk file extension. Those applications either pre-installed (phone, email, map, calendar, web browser, and contacts) or user-installed applications. The application can be run simultaneously at the same time.
Android security is working to be the most secure and usable OS by identifying and overcoming other OSs drawbacks. Its main value is to protect the user data as well as protection of the system resources. Android OS security power based on many levels:
 Robust security through the Linux kernel platform.
 Application sandbox.
 Inter-process communication (ICP)
 Application signing
 Application-defined and user-granted permissions

Smart phones, are they luxury phones? Or today’s Lifestyle? Or a vital tool providing instant information, entertainment, and organization services.

Ironically I do not have smart phone! But as I am loyal and forever grateful to Google, certainly I will wait for the Google phone.

References:
Android web site, www.android.com accessed 5th October 2011
Introducing Android chapter 1 http://media.techtarget.com/.searchmobilecomputing/Introducing_Android.pdf. Accessed 8th ocotober2011