Wednesday, November 6, 2013
While the crowds at the 2013 American Dental Association Annual Session were smaller than in previous years, the number of new dental products on display in the show’s exhibit hall was as impressive as ever.
The lower than usual attendance numbers might be due to the fact that the show was later in the year than usual, or the fact that the first day of the event fell on Halloween. Of course that added some life to the event as plenty of attendees, exhibitors and even some booths dressed up in spooky and amusing costumes.
The less than crowded exhibit hall also meant that it was never difficult to learn about the latest in dental materials, technology and other innovations. Here are some of the more exciting new products I had a chance to see at the show. Like the Halloween themed Dentalcompare chattering teeth at the top of this article, some of these new innovations are on display in 3D thanks to images I captured using the Seene app. Using your mouse (or finger if you're on a mobile device) you can change the angle of these images to see a bit more than a normal, 2D photo.
The biggest new technology on the scene is a system teased to the industry since the International Dental Show last spring, and now CS Solutions, Carestream Dental’s chairside CAD/CAM system is finally available. The modular system is designed for ease of use and can be set up in an array of configurations, allowing practices to choose how they will scan, and whether or not they will design the restorations in house or send the scans to a lab. A mill also is available for chairside crown, inlay and onlay fabrication, but clinicians can also choose to skip that step and send crown designs to a lab for production.
CS Solutions represents just the third complete chairside CAD/CAM system to hit the dental market, but with its modular, open-architecture approach, it also represents the emerging trend of digital dental technologies that can be adapted to the way a practices wants to work now and then expanded or reconfigured if the practice wants to change its digital workflow.
Another exciting innovation to debut at the ADA Annual Session is a much smaller device, but the new Isovac from Isolite Systems can make a huge impact on practice operations. The first Isolite product designed for use in the hygiene room, the Isovac attaches to a standard HVE port, making it simple to add Isolite mouthpieces to any operatory. Featuring a design that is as easy to clean as it is to use, Isovac makes universal use of Isolite mouthpieces a snap.
Things took a bit of a darker turn when it comes to the power toothbrushes many practices sell to help patients take better care of their teeth and gums at home. Both Philips Sonicare and Oral-B launched stylish black versions of their top of the line brushes, proving that looks matter, even for something as seemingly utilitarian as a toothbrush.
If there was a trend in product innovations making their debut at the ADA Session, it was certainly that plenty of dental product companies feel physical impressions will not be going anywhere any time soon. It was almost impossible to count all the new VPS dental impression materials on display at the show, but a trio certainly stood out.
3M ESPE showed off its newest generation of impression materials with Imprint 4, a material that takes advantage of a specially designed, temperature sensitive additive to set intraorally in just 75 seconds regardless of the working time used. The material also displays a great deal of hydrophilicity.
However, as impressive as Imprint 4 might be when it comes to dealing with a wet environment, DenMat’s latest impression material SplashMax is designed to perform even better with amazing instant hydrophilicity and an immediate contact angle lower than other materials. Hence the SplashMax ducks the company was giving away.
DENTSPLY Caulk took a different approach to innovating the impression material category with Aquasil Ultra Cordless. This new impression taking system incorporates a retraction agent into the wash material, eliminating the need to pack cord or use a separate paste ahead of capturing the impression. Delivered via a novel handpiece that makes precise placement of the material into the sulcus easy, Aquasil Ultra Cordless aims to eliminate the impression taking gremlins, represented by the products mascot Floyd.
While these were not the only innovations on display at the ADA Exhibit Hall, they’re the ones that caught my attention. Which ones impressed you the most? Let us know what we missed in the comments section below.