A shift of force vector from arm to brain: 3D computer technology in orthodontic treatment management.

For many years, we have been witnessing changes in what it takes to make a good orthodontist. A gradual shift has occurred from a manual to a technological approach, from professional intuition to image-based diagnosis and from craftsmanship to standardization of materials and procedures. Result-forecasting, reproducibility of outcomes, the transfer of, and agreement on, information and the delegation of functions, such are the future challenges our profession will have to meet. For many years already, information technology has been an indispensable partner of orthodontists to a point where we can now predict tooth movements in the occlusion and use this information in the complex mechanical manufacturing of the appliances required to achieve these displacements. Three-dimensional Information Technology (3D IT) is opening up new frontiers in this domain allowing the ever-greater use of industrially-manufactured appliances while respecting the biomechanical field. It has provided end-results which are totally positive for orthodontic patients, as was already the case in implantology and prosthetics. Copyright 2010 CEO. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.