WHAT IS DIGITAL DENTISTRY, WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR THE PATIENT?
Our lives have been revolutionized by digital technology and artificial intelligence. Dentistry is no different. From simple software to digitize decades of patient records to ground-breaking ones like intraoral and extraoral scanners, digital technology has made dentistry more predictable, precise, and rapid.
Most dentists are slowly transforming their practices from following traditional workflows to a combination of analogue and digital ones. This evolution has several advantages for the dentist, the dental technician and most importantly the patient.
What does this mean for the patient? Let’s look at a typical digital workflow.
For starters, in most modern practices, it is quite likely that you wouldn’t have to endure those uncomfortable impressions with the mango-flavoured goo that prevents you from breathing and makes you gag anymore. We now have intraoral scanners that contain a small wand that stitches together several photos of the structures in your mouth that possess the same excellent accuracy with significantly lesser discomfort. The data is then converted into 3D digital models on fancy software that can be used to design your prosthesis. This design is then either printed or milled to produce your brand-new tooth. Fascinating, isn’t it?
This also means that you don’t have to wear metal braces. You have the option of wearing digitally designed trays that align your teeth instead!
As far as surgical procedures such as implants are concerned, placement has now become more predictable in terms of placement accuracy and outcome as we have so much information available to plan the treatment. You no longer need to wait for 3 months to add that tooth to your implant because digital dentistry allows us to give you one on the day of the surgery.
We enjoy several advantages by using these modern technologies. The resultant prosthesis is extremely accurate. In the event we need another copy of the same prosthesis, we wouldn’t have to repeat the impression procedure because the data is already available and saved on our systems. Since we are designing the prosthesis, we have the opportunity to make the most aesthetic choices, envision the outcome before actually fabricating the prosthesis, mimic pre-existing contours, and match colours to extreme precision. Most importantly, all of this is done at a much, much faster pace. Additionally, it’s more eco-friendly as we use less plaster, plastic and other dental materials.
If you haven’t visited our practice in some time, you will find that we are evolving to a more modern and digital practice with the aim of providing our patients with the most cutting-edge technology in dentistry.
