Cefla Dental Group America recently sent its portable digital x-ray sensor with touchscreen, X-pod, to accompany a humanitarian outreach group from Temple University to Haiti. This spring ten students and four faculty members from Kronberg School of Dentistry traveled to the country hit by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in January to provide over 1,000 Haitians with dental care.
For the past 16 years, Temple Haiti Club has been traveling to the small town of Jeremieca. 100 miles west of Port-Au-Prince. While there, the group stays with the Haitian Health Foundation Clinic. The group travels to neighboring villages by jeep to provide much needed dental care. The outreach program is often the only chance this community has to see a dentist and alleviate dental pains and infections. Patients line up early in the morning and wait hours to be treated.
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The equipment is transported by jeep and is limited to mainly: portable dental chairs,local anesthetic and drugs, gauze, surgical instruments, limited emergency equipment,and cold sterilization supplies. There is no electricity, no suction, no high-speed headpiece, let alone x-ray equipment. In years past, surgical extractions were performed without knowing exactly what was underneath the gums and bone, which presented the students with lengthy and difficult procedures. 2010 marked the first year the group had the opportunity to take x-rays with Aribex's Nomad and instantly review them on MyRay's X-pod.
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X-pod was used to aid in diagnostics and treatment planning of teeth that were predicted as difficult extractions and required visualization of angled roots and other pathology. It was also used when an extraction became complicated and visualization of root tips became necessary. "X-pod allowed us diagnostic images that we had never before seen or used in the extreme third world conditions. X-pod was ideal for the conditions we worked in" said Dr. Cory Johnston, a recent graduate from Temple University, "it was an excellent diagnostic tool and we were blown away by the ease of use and portability."
MyRay's X-pod is the digital x-ray solution that gives freedom from cords and computers.X-pod's sensor with rounded edges captures x-rays and displays them on its handheld touchscreen. Multi-step zoom and image enhancement options ensure immediate diagnostic quality x-rays. Users can then transfer images to computers with Bluetooth, USB, or a card reader.