Sir, we are fourth year dental students writing to you regarding the use of novel dental technologies to enhance dental teaching across the UK. The use of computer aided design and computer aided manufacturing (CAD-CAM) in general practice has increased considerably over the last decade, consistent with its technological progress. Personally, we were introduced to CAD-CAM at an early stage in our training, but it has come to our attention that companies such as Dentsply Sirona only visit some dental schools.

In our experience, they offered a complete interactive demonstration of CAD-CAM equipment, including how to use it. This demonstration was supplemented by a 'mini' competition whereby students prepared a tooth for a full gold crown and the student with the best preparation has the crown milled by the CAD-CAM. Not only was this enjoyable for students, it also gave the class an opportunity to see the milling process live. This consolidated our knowledge of the CAD-CAM process. We were also able to appreciate the value of CAD-CAM as an effective tool in multidisciplinary management of a patient. It was intriguing to read a recent article by Antov and colleagues regarding the use of CAD/CAM technology in the management of toothwear.1 It really highlighted how advances in dental technology can improve patient comfort and experience as well as incorporating the key principles of minimal interventive dentistry, consistent with the teaching we receive in restorative dentistry, and we strongly believe that we have benefitted from this experience.

Having been exposed to CAD-CAM and becoming familiar with it, we have gained a considerable amount of knowledge and confidence to be able to use it in future treatment of our own patients. Ultimately, we feel that this approach should be implemented across dental schools to enhance student learning and assist in providing clinical excellence translating to optimal patient care.