Just got our new Digital Pan-Ceph (Kodak) installed this last week!
Wow, it is nice. The Kodak unit included "one shot" ceph which is just a quick exposure like a film. In other words, there is no scanning required for the ceph portion.
It is impressive to watch the instant scan of the pano onto the computer screen.
The most important part is not for me being impressed, but each patient comments or notes how impressive it is!
I have to admit humbly I way underestimated the marketing and confidence in technology factor of digital radiographs.
We have been using intra oral for a couple of months and, after staff and patients getting used to the larger sensors, it has been a great time (and money) saver for the practice, and once again, I underestimated how much the patients LOVE interacting with the alterable xrays of themselves!
Compared to static film that cannot get contrasts, coloration, and negative views, I can diagnose with more confidence AND they see it clearly themselves and ASK for what treatment they need.
Now we can't forget that having a good relationship of trust is still paramount and valid, but the xrays do truly add value to the visit.
I use the ceph a lot (I had a regular planmeca ceph before) for orthodontics, but also for planning implant cases, especially anterior placement and sinus evaluation.
I also use it to evaluate facial type such as long faced (dolicofacial) which usually has weaker muscles and less critical in placement of vertical dimension or short faced, square brachyfacial which usually cannot tolerate much, if at all, increase in vertical and are more likely to fracture restorations.
Digital also allows me to directly place the ceph in my POSoft program (from Progressive Orthodontics Seminars software) directly and place ceph points and it auto traces.
More exciting was that EACH AND EVERY ceph I have taken this week is SUPERIOR to any film version in contrast and hard and soft tissue differentiation.
I have a colleague, Dave Eslinger, DDS., who is helping all the Heartland Offices install their digital radiography. He used to work as an independent consultant and worked for Kodak and is very familialiar with how the software from Kodak works, but, more valuable is his knowledge of how Kodak (and others) use some of the features that windows has in their software.
In otherwords, he understand windows and how some of it's little known features help use the software. this has helped us in directly adding photos for instance onto the Kodak file. It has a very easy direct bridge to Dentrix (our software) so that we just open up the patient's clinical file and open the Kodak from them and easily transfer data back and forth (the easy part thanks to Dave's knowledge of integrating Dentrix/Windows/kodak software.
It has been very refreshing learning from someone who understands the technology AND dentistry of course!
I hope to have him post regularly on digital technology both on this blog and our future All Things Dental 2.0 website as it develops.
thanks for your commitment to the profession and people we call patients.
regards to all
FMN
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
All Things Dental 2.0
Dentistry has sure changed over the last 25 years, hasn't it?
I would venture to say that only about 20% of what I do every day is directly what I learned in dental school!
Now, don't get me wrong. I went to a great dental school and learned a lot of great PRINCIPLES from some great teachers like Jack Preston, Harold Landesman, even got to be taught by Rex Ingraham, the old Gold master in his last years of teaching.
I felt I got the best of the old world (Dr Rex and even Dr Earl Pound lectured to us a few times!) and the best of the new. Jack Preston took over as the head of Prosthodontics right after Rex Ingraham and, as most of you know, he was a pioneer in color science and porcelain shade selection.
In fact I am pretty sure, if I have my facts straight, he was instrumental in the 3-D shade guide we all use a lot. (if he wasn't, he sure talked a lot about a need for a non-arbitrary shade guide that somehow involved more of the color wheel and "value" as a guide. )
The principles of color we learned from him still apply today.
In the operative department, great minds like Richard Kahn and even Albert Solnit were my mentors and I feel fortunate to learn from these gentlemen.
Those that know Dr. Solnit remember him as a sort of flamboyant and quite "self confident" individual. No matter what anyone says, the basics he and his staff taught us about tooth anatomy and contour became, in hindsight, as bonding came along and we did chairside resin, one of the most valuable skills we learned in school!
I remember being on the curriculum committee as a student representative and hearing the arguments pro and con about continuing to carve wax teeth. My son in law recently graduated from UNLV and didn't carve more than one tooth and we carved 16 full contour teeth, he didn't process one denture start to finish and we processed at least 6.
Anyway, the reason I bring this all up is not to remember the old times, but to point out how fundamentals are so important (as in sports) to our success in todays rapidly changing dental marketplace.
I want this blog to bring to you information of what is happening in dentistry and to form a bond among us, our vendors and suppliers and the educators who train the new generations of dentists.
In other words, a place where we talk about "ALL THINGS DENTAL" in our web 2.0 environment that emphasizes more interaction and discussion.
The growing trend of us learning "after school" is being supplied nicely as well from the educators I admire like John Kois and Frank Spear, among many others, that are dedicated to moving the art and science of dentistry forward.
I'm excited to share all I find out that is valuable to you, the practicianer of our profession, and all those individuals involved to make it all happen..
kind regards,
Frank M Nelson DDS
I would venture to say that only about 20% of what I do every day is directly what I learned in dental school!
Now, don't get me wrong. I went to a great dental school and learned a lot of great PRINCIPLES from some great teachers like Jack Preston, Harold Landesman, even got to be taught by Rex Ingraham, the old Gold master in his last years of teaching.
I felt I got the best of the old world (Dr Rex and even Dr Earl Pound lectured to us a few times!) and the best of the new. Jack Preston took over as the head of Prosthodontics right after Rex Ingraham and, as most of you know, he was a pioneer in color science and porcelain shade selection.
In fact I am pretty sure, if I have my facts straight, he was instrumental in the 3-D shade guide we all use a lot. (if he wasn't, he sure talked a lot about a need for a non-arbitrary shade guide that somehow involved more of the color wheel and "value" as a guide. )
The principles of color we learned from him still apply today.
In the operative department, great minds like Richard Kahn and even Albert Solnit were my mentors and I feel fortunate to learn from these gentlemen.
Those that know Dr. Solnit remember him as a sort of flamboyant and quite "self confident" individual. No matter what anyone says, the basics he and his staff taught us about tooth anatomy and contour became, in hindsight, as bonding came along and we did chairside resin, one of the most valuable skills we learned in school!
I remember being on the curriculum committee as a student representative and hearing the arguments pro and con about continuing to carve wax teeth. My son in law recently graduated from UNLV and didn't carve more than one tooth and we carved 16 full contour teeth, he didn't process one denture start to finish and we processed at least 6.
Anyway, the reason I bring this all up is not to remember the old times, but to point out how fundamentals are so important (as in sports) to our success in todays rapidly changing dental marketplace.
I want this blog to bring to you information of what is happening in dentistry and to form a bond among us, our vendors and suppliers and the educators who train the new generations of dentists.
In other words, a place where we talk about "ALL THINGS DENTAL" in our web 2.0 environment that emphasizes more interaction and discussion.
The growing trend of us learning "after school" is being supplied nicely as well from the educators I admire like John Kois and Frank Spear, among many others, that are dedicated to moving the art and science of dentistry forward.
I'm excited to share all I find out that is valuable to you, the practicianer of our profession, and all those individuals involved to make it all happen..
kind regards,
Frank M Nelson DDS
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