Thursday, August 29, 2013
If you have ever bought an airline ticket online or purchased a book from Amazon you have a good idea of what dental lab communications of the future will be like. It won't be printed forms, scribbled notes and plastic baggies; it will be an Internet connection.
Dental treatments that have traditionally required lab procedures are evolving into three different types of work. Single crowns may not go to a lab at all but will be milled out in the office using a digital impression device and dental CAD/CAM.
Complex multiple units or esthetically critical cases will still require a master technician to create, but the dental lab will be receiving a digital impression through the Internet rather than a goo impression in a plastic bag.
Some cases, mostly removable prosthetics—dentures and partials—still require a physical impression to be picked up and sent to the dental lab, but even this might go digital before long.
At the point in the procedure when in the past you reached for the printed lab slip, you will instead log on to the dental lab website. As you log on the system will recognize you and automatically know all the basic details about your practice such as address, account number and phone number. In addition, it will know your preferences as to materials, design and technicians.
The system will then upload all the appropriate patient data from your practice’s digital record. This would include the patient name or ID#, the tooth numbers, the treatment, the materials, the shade and the due date. Of course you will be using an encrypted HIPAA compliant system and have the proper HIPAA agreement in place with the lab and the web service.
If you have captured a digital impression with your CEREC camera, an E4D NEVO or any one of several new digital impression devices, you can then upload the impression. Some systems are closed. That is you can only upload the impression to the labs on the network. It is a closed proprietary group. Other systems are open and use standard interoperable file formats so the digital impression can be used by any other open system at the dental lab.
If you needed to take a traditional impression, the digital communications system will print out a shipping label and alert the courier service that you have a pick up.
You will then be prompted to fill in details using a decision tree. For example the first decision might be metal or non metal. Your usual preference would be chosen as the default. However if you wanted to do something different you could choose it instead.
Let’s say you choose non-metal, your next choice would be a list of non-metal materials. These might include Lava, Procera, e.Max and Empress. Again your usual preference would be highlighted or you could choose another option. Also you could choose to view details of any material at any time. For example, is it cementable? Is it recommended for full coverage? You also could download these details including clinical techniques to print or file.
At this point the lab could launch a pop-up window to introduce a new material or technique. Dentists who used D-Max also liked MongoCore. You could ignore it or follow through the links to learn more about the material. This could lead to prep designs, photos, testimonials and even a chance to sign up for a free online technique course.
You will then have a blank page on which to type all the detailed notes you wish or upload them from the patient record. You will also be able to upload and attach photos, digital shade information and other digital data.
When you click submit the lab will acknowledge receipt, confirm the delivery date and enter your case into their work tracking system.
As a regular user of the lab you will be rewarded as a “frequent prepper” a "Gold Elite" client. This will prompt all kinds of special treatment, perks, goodies and discounts to fall your way!
While logged on you could check your account balance, make an online payment or track the progress of any active cases.
We don’t have online lab systems like this yet, but we will. The Future is coming and it will be amazing!