At Waterside Dentalcare we are committed to keeping up to date with the newest advances in technology which we feel will truly benefit our patients.
Our iTero intraoral scanner has changed the way we take impressions for patients and has greatly improved our workflow. The iTero intraoral scanner allows us to take digital impressions; it simultaneously captures 2D images in colour with highly accurate 3D laser scanning to build a digital image of your teeth.
Our iTero intra oral scanner negates the need for more conventional gooey impressions in almost all cases. There is a compact wand, which you will feel vibrating slightly, which captures images and laser scans the teeth. We slowly work our way around the mouth and build a digital image of your teeth.
It does take slightly longer than conventional impressions; however we can stop and start the scanning as many times as needed so patients can have a rest or swallow. We have had lots of positive feedback from our patients and almost all of them prefer the digital impression scanner to conventional impressions.
Patients also like being able to see the digital impressions on screen and it helps us to show people aspects of their teeth which we can’t show you in a mirror and therefore helps us to explain treatment options.
We have found our work flow has improved since taking a more digital approach. Once we have taken a digital impression with the iTero intraoral scanner, we can send it as a digital file directly to the dental laboratory. The laboratory can then download it, put it onto their planning software and design the lab work digitally. The models can then be 3D printed (to a resolution of 36 microns). Benefits include being able to copy shapes exactly as they were before. Since most lab work is milled or printed from a digital design, having a digital record at the beginning improves the accuracy of the final result.
Another benefit to taking impressions digitally is that it allows us to directly compare scans taken at different times. This means we can monitor tooth movement and tooth surface loss over time. The digital impressions are safely stored on a secure cloud so that we are able to access them at any time and print new models if needed, or just compare them to new scans.
With an increase of digital work we have also updated our digital security. Our digital communications with other healthcare providers meets HIPAA standards.
We remain open during these times of heightened coronavirus restrictions.
We will remain open during these times of heightened coronavirus restrictions, delivering comprehensive care to our patients and patients referred to us. For further information please follow the link.
