Digital imaging leads to perfect crowns and veneers
Story By: Bea Karnes
Source: NBC
You know those messy, gunky impressions you get at the dentist's office? Well thanks to new technology that may soon become a thing of the past. Now dentists can scan your teeth digitally.
"It has a wand that has several sophisticated cameras in it. And we just put this into the mouth and it captures 3d live motion video of the area that we're working on," said Dr. Jack Ringer an AACD accredited dentist.
The lava chair side oral scanner wand takes 1,200 pictures per minute and the software processes them into a 3d image.
"The accuracy rivals any traditional impressions we have today. I can put on these 3d glasses like in theaters and I can see in three dimensions every little detail of this and I can rotate it any way I want," said Ringer.
And with the push of a button the results are instantly emailed to the lab. "We're eliminating a lot of human error," Ringer said. There a model of the teeth is produced and the crown or the veneer is tailor made.
"From our perspective it means a higher degree of accuracy, better fitting restoration, and more precise product that we can deliver for our dentist," said Ryan Haupt of Haupt Dental Laboratory.
"We've taken traditional, old style impressions and bite into the 21st century which is far more sophisticated, predictable, efficient and so much more comfortable for the patient," said Ringer.
"It's so easy, so simple. You don't feel anything, you can't feel light," said patient Renee Borsack.
The cost is about the same as regular impressions. The new technology is not available at every dentist's office.
