Georgia Institute of Technology

Mission

The mission of the Dental Technology Center (DenTeC) is to integrate the disciplines of engineering and dental and craniofacial medicine to develop innovative technologies to support the treatments of dental disease and craniofacial disorders. As a non-profit organization, the center provides independent and unbiased research and analysis for the dental community. It maintains a central repository for research, patient and instrumentation data associated with its activities that is available for all public research institutes.

This center is hosted at the Georgia Institute of Technology and includes collaborative partnerships with Emory University, the Medical College of Georgia, other dental and medical schools in the region, industry, and clinicians.

The center focuses on three primary areas of activity:

  • Research
    DenTeC performs fundamental research for new discoveries, addresses issues related to the application of novel technologies to dental and craniofacial treatments, supplies new products for industry, and supports the creation of new biomedical industries in Georgia
  • Education
    Professional Education courses, involving Georgia Tech research faculty, focus on the application of science-based research developed at Georgia Tech in dental and craniofacial health; courses are designed to meet the professional education needs of clinicians, surgeons, dental lab technicians, dental professionals, and industry researchers.
  • Scientific Evaluation of Technologies
    DenTeC takes an unbiased approach to the measurement and evaluation of dental products and processes; this function is operated independently of the research to avoid bias or conflict of interest with research performed in the center and provides open, accessible data for clinical and patient use
  • Outreach
    DenTeC continues to investigate ways in which researchers could improve the methods in which dental care is currently provided. Through research and education DenTeC has been teaching doctors how to work more efficiently (in less time) while providing more predictable results and maximizing patient comfort. Now efforts are under way to expand the outreach efforts of Georgia Tech by providing more in-depth research opportunities in to the areas of ergonomics and human factors, public health, patent education, prevention, early detection, to name a few.