Another dental technology that has become popular in recent years is Intraoral Scanners. Traditionally, dental professionals had to take impressions with a jelly-like material that would sit in the patient’s mouth until it dried and a mold was formed. Now, dental technology has advanced towards using intraoral scanners for this purpose.
Intraoral scanners are dental devices used to capture and map a patient’s oral cavity. The device is composed of a wand that is attached to a computer with a cord. The dental professional uses the wand to glide across all surfaces of the top and bottom teeth. As the wand moves through the mouth, the computer software captures a digital 3D model of the patient’s teeth.
This type of dental equipment has seen an increase in accuracy and has become easier to use since they were first created. Because of this, many dental practices have started including this type of dental equipment in their everyday use.
Keep reading to find out about the many benefits that intraoral scanners offer your dental practice.
Check out the 3DISC Heron Intraoral Scanner here:
The Benefits of Intraoral Scanners in Dentistry
Patient Comfort
One of the most important benefits of using an intraoral scanner is patient comfort. As mentioned, before intraoral scanners, physical impressions had to be made. This was an uncomfortable process for the patient and left room for human and environmental errors.
Traditional dental impressions were taken with an alginate mold and jelly-like material. The dental professional would mix the thick, sticky material and insert the mold tray into the patient’s mouth. Then they would wait for the material to solidify, which could take between two and three minutes. Once dry, the hardened material created a mold of the teeth.
Unfortunately, the traditional impression method was difficult to tolerate for the few minutes that it took for the mold to harden. The trays were large, and when pressed against the teeth, the excess mold material would be pushed further into the patient’s mouth. For patients with a strong gag reflex, waiting two to three minutes was difficult.
Traditional dental impression material was also sensitive to environmental factors. These could ruin the quality of the impression, which could mean re-taking impressions. Heat, humidity, and human error could all lead to having to take impressions again. This was due to it being impossible to see the condition of the impression until it was dried.
Thankfully, the introduction of intraoral scanners to dental impressions alleviated these problems. The wand of the scanners is small and can be easily angled for patient comfort. There is also no need to wait several minutes for the mold material to be finished solidifying. Nor do patients have to taste or feel the sticky goo in their mouths.
Speed
Intraoral scanners offer the benefit of speed in a few different ways. As mentioned, patients no longer have to wait for several minutes for the dental impression to dry. The digital impression taken by intraoral scanners is a much faster process.
As the scan is being completed, the digital impression populates immediately on the monitor. This happens in front of the patient, in real-time. This allows for analysis to take place immediately, so dental professionals can see the quality of the digital impression.
Which further allows for re-scanning areas that were missed or correct imperfections. This, in turn, saves time for the patient and practice, as diagnosis and treatment can quickly be discussed with a perfect visual.
High-Quality Dental Imaging
Intraoral scanners also offer the benefit of accuracy. The advanced 3D technology used for digital impressions is able to capture the patient’s exact teeth shape and contours. This gives the dental professional an accurate image of the teeth, helping with diagnosis and treatment plans.
Further, digital impressions make marketing treatment plans to patients easier with the image present on the monitor. Having high-quality dental images helps with marketing your dental practice, by accurately highlighting the condition of a patient’s oral health, as well as being able to show before and after images.
For more information on the importance of having clear and effective dental imaging, plus tips and tricks to getting perfect clinical photos, read Dr. Glenn Krieger’s feature in DentalTown here.
If you are interested in learning more about Intraoral Scanners, call Capital Dental Equipment today to speak with a representative about our manufacturers. To view dental intraoral scanners for sale, click here.
