Chiara Parise

During the last years medicine and its diagnostic and therapeutic sector have been strongly influenced by technological and scientific development. The introduction of artificial intelligence and machine learning allows today a more precise analysis, speeding up the learning paths and increasing the quality of the process. The dental environment, in particular, represents a health industry in considerable progress given the economic possibilities and the valuable research in the innovative field. In particular, prosthetic surgery and maxillofacial surgery have brought significant improvements in precision and quality of treatment, adopting technologies such as augmented reality, the intra-oral scanner and CAD / CAM prototyping, using 3D printers and cutters numerically controlled. Technological innovation has sometimes led to the progressive impersonality of the doctor-patient relationship, considering the patient as the “object” of the medical record rather than as a human being in its entirety. Analyzing the patient’s current experience in a dental office,  the pain points were highlighted in which a designer could bring added value, not only from the experiential point of view inherent to the patient, but also from the point of functional and organizational view in internal communication between dental technician and clinician. In this perspective, the methodology of Digital Smile Design (DSD) is proposed as an aid to improve and simplify the work-flow and communication in the dental field. It is based on the conversation with the patient in order to understand aesthetic and functional needs. It also improves the diagnosis phase, treatment planning and the communication of the clinician with patients and collaborators, increasing the predictability of treatment. The aim of the thesis is to improve the patient’s experience in the diagnostic and post-intervention control phase, integrating the DSD methodology with that of the human-centered design: changing the common perception of the impersonality of a dental practice, transmitting a sense of inclusion in the process and create an atmosphere of comfort and a relationship of trust. The idea is to create a product-service in which new technologies and rapid prototyping collaborate in order to design an accessible place where the patient becomes the protagonist of the experience and, through the use of specially designed tools, assumes a proactive role in the diagnostic and decision-making process.