With the advancement in 3D technology and machine learning, dentistry is going through a rapid evolution. New technologies and new techniques are entering in the dental practices and dentist Brisbane tends to stay at the standard level of care or above for their patients.

Practice mangers need to decide if they want to add the new technologies to their practice or not and if yes, when to add them to the office?

There are a lot of answers to this question and adding new technologies to the office is stressful for the team because any change can lead to stress because of the new training requirements and a new change in the environment is always associated with stress.

Is this always true? does new technology always make life easier? we think efficiency is the key. A right balance of technology in the office when combined with proper training and skills can be useful but it is not always true.

If the team is not provided with the training or support to resolve the issued quickly, then the delay and downtime due to technology failure can harm the productivity of the team.

For many patients dental impression procedure is not a pleasant one. Some 3D scanner manufacturers claim that with the new impression materials, obtaining dental impressions have become easier, faster and more productive for the dental office. It is like a shortcut through the labwork and the delay between patient’s first and final appointment for the restorative work is reduced. With this technology you should be able to achieve the desired result faster.

Digital xrays provide patients with better protection because of the controlled dose of exposure. Digital images can be enlarged or zoomed on the monitor. A great tool for treatment presentation or presentation of the diagnosed issues in dental tissues.

Computer aided design and manufacturing allow models and dental crowns be fabricated in an hour. Less coordination work and more comfort for the dental team and quicker results for busy patients or patients who are in a rush to get the treatment done due to their circumstances.

However, in-house CAD CAM can save you from lab fees. In terms of quality, you should make sure in-house lab work has sufficient and acceptable level of quality for your patient because currently, the quality of CAD CAM in-house products in not as high as lab-made products.

New impression techniques are good because they reduce human error. Imagine you take the impression. You send it to the lab and the lab asks you to re-do taking the impression. Now you need to call the patient in for another unpleasant impression!

Some periodontists claim to have had excellent results with using laser in their clinics.

General Dentists on the other hand, are not a huge fan of lasers. However, some general dentists find laser a suitable technology to:

• Filling dark lines on molars
• Gingivectomy around dental crown prep
• Periodontal re-contouring for treatment of gummy smiles

Well it seems very good at first but the patient has to wait at lease one hour in the office. The waiting time may not suit some patients and they need to come in for their second appointment anyway.

Long waiting in the waiting area increase space demand in the waiting area as well. Yes you need more chairs, more air conditioning, more entertainment, etc.

This technology would be really good if the delay in production is significantly reduced to values like 5 to 10 minutes.

Is the new technology always better? this is debatable. Take composites as an example. They have been continuously improving every week over the past years. However, their longevity is perhaps not as good as old dental amalgams. Amalgam restorations seem to have better resistance compared to composite restorations.

To fit composites without voids, you need to dry the work environment in the mouth. More that what amalgam needs. You also need to restore using layers if you want your restoration to have sufficient bite resistance and durability.

In this sense, new technology is not always superior in all aspects, compared to old techniques. But yes they do have better performance in other aspects like more natural looking, better colour and optical properties.

Recently we decided to try a new technology and reduce injection pain. So we invested in this device that claims pain reduction using a vibration technique. We used the device multiple time on different patients and different dentists. All dentists and all patients reported the device had no benefit and no pain reduction occurred.

You can’t just buy and use new technology. There is always a risk that it’s not what it claims to be..

By:

Pure Denistry, Shop 11, The Village Shopping Centre

11/1932-1974 Logan Road, Upper Mount Gravatt, QLD 4122

Tel:0733434869