The Latest Tech in Dentist Equipment
Keeping up with the latest technology and gadgets is important for any practice but especially for dental practice. Understanding what dentist equiptment you should add to your office, and why will keep you at the top of your field. So what technologies are transforming the dental industry?
Upwards of 20% of people haven’t seen a dentist in the last few years. Many because they say they can’t afford to visit the dentist, some because of a fear of the dentist, and others with the inability to find a convenient time or location for their appointments. However, these evolving preferences for patients have driven forward the latest technological developments for dentists that help deliver better dental care and connect more effectively with clients.
Latest Technology Invent In the Dental Industry
1. Teledentistry
Perhaps the biggest change in the industry is that of teledentistry. Tele dentistry came about when dental offices were forced to close during COVID-19. Many offices still have lower-than-normal patient volumes even when they’re able to open again. But teledentistry helps to bridge any of these gaps, especially for people who can’t find effective dental practices near their location. dental consulting and basic examinations can be done with digital tools like asynchronous or synchronous video. The adoption of teledentistry technologies helped to reduce issues where patients were unable to get to their dentist, didn’t have reliable transportation, or simply didn’t want to come to the dentist for something that wasn’t actually an emergency. With teledentistry technology, dentists could determine if there really was an emergency or whether the dental issue could wait until their next check-up.
2. Virtual reality
Given the high percentage of patients who don’t like visiting a dentist at all because of significant phobias and fears, things like virtual reality technology have helped to bridge this gap as well. Now dental practitioners are able to deliver better care to their patients even if their patients have a fear of the dentist. When patients come to a dental practice, they can wear headsets that contain augmented reality or virtual reality. These headsets can provide a completely different environment, distracting patients from the source of their phobia or fear. Studies have confirmed that virtual reality statistically improves pain management. When people use Virtual Reality or augmented reality during the course of a dental procedure, their levels of perceived pain drop. This makes it easier for the dentist to perform the necessary procedures, the patience to relax during those procedures, and the overall pain to be reduced after the fact.
3. Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence has helped to improve diagnostics within dental practices. Artificial intelligence tools are now more consistent in diagnosing things like tooth decay from radiographs. Algorithms can be trained to make decisions based on billions of data points which is proven to be more effective than a human looking at a radiograph with a naked eye. Artificial intelligence can uncover abnormal structures, determine a diagnosis for oral health issues, and even suggest treatments. In reality, dentists are still the crux of the dental industry but they are only human which means they might miss things or make mistakes having artificial intelligence can serve as a right-hand man so to speak, or another set of eyes that validates the diagnosis or results in a dentist provides.
4. 3D printing
3D printing makes it easy for dental practices to improve their satisfaction rates with patients and reduce their expenses. High-speed 3D printers are now available at lower costs than ever before. If you consider things like dental implants, it might cost about 100,000 pounds for a lab to manufacture dental implants but a 3D printer can reduce that cost by 80,000 pounds. Reducing the cost of services like creating dental implants reduces the cost to the patient. By reducing costs to patients, patients who currently claim that they don’t take care of their oral health because it’s not affordable are more likely to reach out to their local dentist and get the help they need. What’s more, 3D printing can be used to make dental splints and medical modeling. This type of medical modeling can be used to evaluate the impact of certain dental surgeries or treatment plans. 3D printing can create dental splints quickly and easily, to prevent teeth grinding. Splints can be printed in just over 1 hour so they are not only faster than current dental split manufacturing, but also cheaper.
No matter which of these new dental technologies or dental equipment you choose to integrate into your practice, you can rest assured that they all bring with them significant impacts, particularly in terms of reducing costs and delivering better care to your patients.
