Tuesday, December 18, 2018
Staying up to date on changes in the industry is a key to providing the best care, and right now the dental industry is in the midst of a major technological overhaul. That's why it should not be a surprise that cutting edge technologies were the focus of all ten of the featured articles on this list.
A common theme through many of these technology-focused articles is just how deeply a practice needs to embrace these new technologies if they are going to be successfully adopted. The dental practices and laboratories sharing their stories of success with technology upgrades all made sure to make those technologies the heart of everyday workflows in order to use the technologies efficiencies as often as possible. This not only provides the best return on investment, but it also provides the best care to more patients.
With those thoughts in mind, here are the top 10 Dental Articles of 2018:
10. How Dental Lasers Cut Pediatric Patients' Fear and Anxiety
Lasers are no longer new to dental operatories, but their ability to impact a practice and its patients has never been greater than it is with the newest generation of lasers being employed chairside. This article from Dr. Sarah Mathias explains how using a laser helps her pediatric practice put patients at ease. The clinical versatility and efficiency lasers can offer are great, but their ability to put patients at ease and to reduce their pain and fear might just be their biggest benefit.
9. Checking in on the Latest Industry Changing Dental Technology
Clinical Director Dr. Jeff Rohde is always on top of what's coming to the industry and which innovations can really make a difference to a dental practice. It's no surprise that his trade show coverage is always well read. Dr. Rohde always highlights the products that caught his eye and frames them in terms of what they can mean for the industry. This article looks at the impressive new products launched at the 2018 Chicago Dental Society Midwinter Meeting and focuses on how CAD/CAM is becoming more and more routine, and 3D printing is starting to find its way toward meaningful chairside use, among other trends.
8. Solving Productivity Killing Start and Stop Dentistry
Clinical technologies are designed to make treatment easier to complete or more effective, but sometimes the true benefit from those features is felt outside the operatory as well. This article from Dr. Heath Brantley looks at how using his Solea Dental Laser for as many clinical situations as possible actually frees up time in his schedule and makes the time he has more useful. He shows how eliminating the pause to wait for anesthesia to take effect makes routine cases take half the time and frees him up to focus on the more exciting cases he treats.
7. Why 3D Printing is a Perfect Fit for Dentistry
The headline for this article could also stand in as a theme for the articles featured on this list. 3D printing was a huge subject on Dentalcompare in 2018, and in this article, Dr. David Kelliny walks readers through how 3D printer technology is absolutely perfect for dental applications. 3D printers do something akin to making something out of nothing. Everything they make can be precisely shaped and customized in almost any way. This ability is ideal for dentistry where every restorative case involves creating a custom three-dimensional device. The technology can be more accurate than traditional techniques, is getting faster all the time, and new materials mean new applications are constantly being introduced.
6. Quick Pick: Portable Digital Impression Systems
It had been a few years since Dentalcompare published any of our Quick Pick articles. These pre-made product comparisons aim to showcase similar products from within a category, collecting them for one shared characteristic and putting all of their different specifications side by side. This article looked at the growing number of intraoral scanners that are easy to move around a dental practice. Gone are the days of large wands connected to stodgy carts. Today's digital impression systems are nimble, plug and play devices, and this popular Quick Pick gave them a platform.
5. Reaching the Cusp of Digital Dentistry
When Dr. Rohde isn't able to attend an industry event, it often falls to me as Publisher to write up an account of the new developments from the show. This wrap-up of the 2017 Greater New York Dental Show was put together in Dr. Rohde's style where I attempted to group the innovations and add some commentary to put the latest developments in perspective. I guess I got things right on this one because here it is in the Top 10. At the New York show I saw how the digital dental industry is trending toward open-architecture solutions, and how digital services and software applications are impacting the way dental practices operate.
4. Quick Pick: Chairside 3D Printers
The second Quick Pick to show up on this list, this article is right on target for this year's theme. 3D printers have been a part of dentistry for more than a decade, but almost all of that use with by large dental laboratories and milling centers. Now a wide range of affordable 3D printing solutions are available with applications that can make sense chairside. The printers put side-by-side in this article can produce things such as models, surgical guides, orthodontic splints, and provisional restorations. The technology is not yet mainstream, but the capability is there and more and more practices will soon have a printer on one of their countertops.
3. Using a Dental Laser to Prep Multiple Teeth Without Local Anesthesia
The most popular clinical article of the year is another account from Dr. Brantley about using the Solea in his practice. This case study documented a large restorative case where he used the laser for the preparations and did not use anesthesia, instead relying on the laser's analgesic effect. This case included pre- and post-op images that showcase the extent of the work performed. Dr. Brantley highlights how the laser allows him to complete this type of treatment in less time, and because the patient is not numb, some follow-up details can be expedited as well.
2. Buyers Guide: Dental 3D Printers
Along with with Quick Picks, Dentalcompare also published another Buyers Guide in 2018, and as it seems to be the year of the 3D printer, it makes sense that this guide to understanding and selecting 3D printers proved so popular. Like all of our BUyers Guide article, this piece seeks to explain what a technology is, how it works, and how it can work for a dental practice or laboratory. The article also include the details dental professionals need to understand in order to tell one system from another and determine what features are more important for their specific situation. As always we include questions to ask sales reps when looking at these products, and it seems a lot of people were looking for just this type of information about 3D printers.
1. The Present and Future of Dental 3D Printing: An Interview with 3D Systems VP, General Manager Dental Rik Jacobs
The most popular dental article of 2018 also focuses on 3D printing. This time the article is a lengthy Q&A with the head of 3D Systems Dental Division Rik Jacobs. The interview ranges through the past and future of the technology to highlight what is being done today with dental 3D printing and where Jacobs and 3D Systems hope to take the technology moving forward. It's an exciting time for 3D printing and it's an exciting time for dentistry in general.