If you have ever had dental impressions, you know exactly how messy, uncomfortable, and gaggy they can be. But what you probably didn’t know is that when we take an impression of your teeth, this impression is sent to the lab with their driver, who picks up many others like yours from various offices, and then delivers it to the lab so technician #1 can make a plaster model, and when it sets, technician # 2 will trim the set models, so that technician # 3 can then work on your teeth. The final product then goes to another, person # 4, to be finished, packaged, and prepped for return to the dental office.
Improving the Process
Prior to COVID, we knew that labs disinfect everything they work on, but when COVID came around, and I had three months to ponder on how to improve all the processes in the office so that we could deliver more safety, more efficiency, and more certainty to our patients, the answer came quickly in order to eliminate this one aspect of possible exposure.
The digital scanner replaces all the messy impressions and eliminates the numerous steps it takes to get to the final result. Since the scanner takes 3D images of your teeth and sends it to a 3D printer, we can eliminate the numerous people that would come into contact with your impression. As a result, not only is the final result more precise since it’s built by a computer rather than a human (eliminating human error) but it’s also more controlled when it comes to infection control, disinfection and sterilization.
Gagging No More
Since the scanner is like a thin camera shaped like a thick pen, it’s comfortable and easy for the patient, and for anyone who has ever experienced gagging and discomfort with the old traditional impressions, you know how important this is to your next experience in our office.