Dental Technology students make communities smile
SMILE: The Department of Dental Sciences recently worked with a rugby club in Saldanha to produce mouth guards for the players.
Tuesday, 11 November 2025
CPUT Dental Technology students are at the forefront of protecting and giving back the smiles to South Africans through sophisticated dental prosthesis and protective guards.
CPUT Dental Technology Lecturer Dr Quintin Norval says the loss of a smile through either injury, disease or defect can have a profound impact on an individual’s confidence.
“The work we do can be two-fold. It is firstly to try and educate youngsters about the importance of mouth hygiene so that they protect their teeth against disease, and it is also about helping someone to replace something they once lost. This has widespread benefits like better digestion and a boost in confidence.”
CPUT is home to a cutting edge Dental Technology and Dental Assistant School which does numerous community outreach projects.
Norval says the days of putty imprints are long gone and that dental technology is going fully digital now.
“3D Dentistry means we use scans and 3D printing to create the prosthetics and we can do this virtually and anywhere in the world,”
The school recently worked with a youth rugby club in Saldanha to produce mouth guards for the young men. The pro-bono guards are custom made and will help protect the youngsters mouths during games and training.
Written by Lauren Kansley
Email: kansleyl@cput.ac.za
Liaises with the media and writes press releases about interesting developments at CPUT.
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