DR MITCHELL JOSEPHS
We were one of the first offices on the Eastern seaboard to use digital impressions back in 2008. (The days of fringed moccasin boots, baby doll dresses, spray tans and the preppy and grunge looks.)
Digital impressions have transformed dentistry by replacing traditional goopy gagging, inaccurate putty molds with fast, accurate, and comfortable 3D scanning technology. The more accurate the fit, the longer your dental work will last and the more money you will save at our West Palm Beach dental office.
Additionally, environmentally friendly, eliminating the need for disposable materials. (Who wants to see a sea turtle with a cotton roll in its mouth?!)
All digital scanners are not created equal.
We just acquired the latest version of these, the iTero Lumina, which has an added feature that will eliminate patients trapping food around crowns and implants by allowing the gum to be scanned first before scanning the implant itself. This “pre-treatment” scan gives the lab your exact gum shape, allowing for better contours of the crowns at the gumline, called the “emergence profile”.
DR JONATHAN JOSEPHS:
Digital scanners give the dentist the opportunity to preview a scan before it is sent to the lab. After the scan is taken the dentist can see on the screen if there is enough space between the upper and lower teeth, and if there is not enough space the dentist can then quickly adjust the tooth and rescan only part of the mouth instead of taking a whole new impression. I think that the ability to rescan part of the mouth instead of taking a new impression helps saves time since each traditional “goopy” impression takes about 8 minutes.
Scanning facilitates faster turnaround time since the digital file gets to the lab sooner than a traditional impression sent via overnight mail. Scanning also facilitates digital collaboration with the lab. The dental lab can take screenshots of scans and send them to your dentist via email before making the crown to make sure the dentist is happy with the design of your new teeth.