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Why digital dentistry?

Digital quality and predictability are no longer in doubt. Doctors weigh in on why.

Doctor's Opinion

In an interview with Dr. Vincent Prestipino, he says the curtain that doctors have been hiding behind: the one that says digital is no good or the quality isn’t there, no longer exists. Studies along with testimonials from doctors and labs emphatically agree. Digital quality is no longer in doubt.

As a practitioner or lab, your goal is to create quality restorations that fit patients perfectly. The only way to predictably accomplish this is by beginning your workflow with consistent and accurate impressions.

Analog impressions (aside from their inherent patient discomfort) risk deformation. They chip, they break. They shrink, they take up space, the list goes on…

Intraoral scanners on the other hand, capture the entire dentition. They do it faster, more accurately and studies’ show, more comfortably for your patient.

Eliminating the Possibility of Error

With digital impressions, you can review the scan immediately after capture, while your patient still sits in the chair. That means any errors can be corrected on the spot.

This is a huge difference compared to a lab opening a package with your analog impression and having to then tell you that you need to bring your patient back in to take the impression over again. Or worse yet, they end up sending you a restoration that doesn’t fit, because they were scared to call you back in the first place. The problem is that the restoration is not fitting due to a lack of skill on their part, it’s because your workflow began with an imperfect analog impression.

According to a survey shared by Straumann, it found that 89% of traditional impressions have one or more detectable errors. The same UK study found that 44.2% of dental impressions of prepared teeth submitted to three UK dental labs were unsuitable for making a dental restoration. The list goes on.

New York doctor, Dr. Alan Jurim says that “I’m not getting my margins from a stone model, I’m getting my margins from what I feel is the more accurate data, an intraoral scan from 3Shape TRIOS.”

Dr. Jurim’s faith in TRIOS accuracy was recently confirmed in a study.* The study named 3Shape TRIOS the best of the seven intraoral scanners and conventional impression tested for delivering finish line (margin line) distinctness, and finish line accuracy. It found that TRIOS’ finish line distinctness and finish line accuracy was higher than a conventional impression.

Saving Time and Money

Speed and accuracy translate to higher productivity. And that means money. Dr. Mark McOmie after doing the math found that by using 3Shape TRIOS, he could achieve a return on his investment in two years at forty crowns per month. His first year using TRIOS, Dr. McOmie ended up doing one hundred crowns a month. In less than a year, he had saved enough money that the scanner paid for itself. His quote sums it up: “How do you pay for your kids’ college? You buy a 3Shape TRIOS scanner.”