How Digital Scanners Can Improve Your Dental Visit

Digital scanners are benefiting dentists and patients alike in all sorts of different ways. Thanks to advances in dental technology, it is no longer necessary for patients or dentists to bother with uncomfortable, annoying and messy dental impressions. This is just one of the many ways in which digital scanners are enhancing the patient experience. Below, we provide a closer look at how digital scanners are improving dental care and comfort for patients.

Digital Scanning Eliminates Outdated Dental Impressions

If you are like most people, you dread the idea of visiting with the dentist to have an uncomfortable dental impression taken. Such impressions are not only uncomfortable; they are also quite messy. Thanks to digital scanning, it is no longer necessary to deal with traditional tray impressions in which a soft material for impressions is placed in a tray and fitted to the mouth so it can set. Though it takes mere minutes for this impression to harden, the wait has the potential to feel like hours for certain patients.

Thanks to the introduction of digital scanning¹, conventional impression trays are a thing of the past. Patients in need of a new crown will have their tooth digitally scanned in order to generate a three-dimensional impression. The dentist will take more digital impressions if you are in need of additional types of restorations, whether it is a dental bridge, a porcelain filling or veneer. Digital scanning can also be used when making the restorations supported by implants.

Increased Patient Comfort

Above all, the primary benefit of digital scanning technology in the context of dental treatment is enhanced comfort. The best dentists have digital scanners as well as the latest equipment necessary for oral health analysis and treatment as they genuinely care about patient comfort. Let our dental team get to work with our digital scanners and other high-tech dental equipment and you will feel perfectly relaxed throughout your appointment.

Superior Accuracy

Digital dental impressions are as accurate as it gets. Accuracy is important as it guarantees the dental restoration to be placed in your mouth fits to perfection. A precisely-made dental restoration that fits as it should will feel and look that much better. Furthermore, the enhanced accuracy ensures the restoration properly protects the tooth in question, guaranteeing bacteria that causes diseases does not enter the tooth.

Quality Control

Dentists and patients alike revere digital scanning technology as it empowers the dentist to quickly gauge the impression’s quality on a screen. This way, the patient can remain in the chair while the dentist performs nearly instantaneous quality control. If subtle alterations are necessary, the dentist has the image(s) necessary to make the appropriate adjustment. In fact, this technology even empowers the dentist to magnify and expand certain parts of the digital impression. This is the look at the impression the dentist needs to guarantee there is ample space for the restoration to be added, ensure it looks fantastic, proves functional and feels comfortable. If necessary, the dentist will slightly adjust the tooth prep to retake the impression prior to sending instructions to the dental lab.

An Array of Applications

Digital scanners are quite helpful beyond crowns and bridges. The best scanners have myriad applications. From cosmetic improvements to dental restorations, digital scanners have proven effective for all sorts of procedures and treatments. If you need veneers, a bridge, dental crowns or another restoration, the dentist will likely use a digital scanner. In fact, this scanner can even be used to create impressions for night guards, orthodontic retainers and Invisalign aligners.

A Reduced Chance of Distortion

Today’s digital scanners create digital impressions that significantly reduce the chance of distortion. In fact, dentists far and wide insist any such risk for distortion is completely eliminated thanks to digital scanners. Distortions sometimes occur when patients mistakenly move their mouth as the impression material sets. When this occurs there is no option but for the dentist to retake the dental impression. Sadly, some such imperfections are not identified until the impression is transmitted to a lab. This might necessitate another patient appointment in order for the impression to be taken again. In the end, it can be said without hesitation that digital scanners provide digital impressions that are dramatically more efficient than the conventional option.

Patients can Request the Digital Impression be Paused

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could pause the digital impression and restart it when desired? Thanks to digital scanners, it is now possible for patients to make such requests. There is no longer a need for traditional physical impressions to lead to discomfort resulting from the material within the mouth setting in. In fact, digital scans erase the need for impression trays and materials that often prove uncomfortable. If you experience even slight discomfort when digital impressions are being made, you can notify the dentist so the scan can be paused and subsequently restarted when you are ready to proceed. Those with a strong gag reflex, an abundance of saliva and those with a child in need of an impression will find it really is that much better to visit with a dentist that uses a digital scanner.

An Eco-friendly Approach to Dentistry

Digital scanners are also revered for the fact that they are eco-friendly. If you have any interest in being green and preserving our increasingly sensitive environment, it is in your interest to visit with a dentist who uses digital scanners. Thanks to digital scanners, there is no longer any need to rely on traditional tray impressions that typically generate an abundance of waste. Conventional mouth trays are commonly disposed of due to hygienic concerns.

Now that digital scanners are available to dentists across the land, there is no need for mouth trays or impression materials to be tossed in landfills. It is comparably easy for dentists to store digital dental impressions on computers. These digital files require no paper at all yet they can remain on file with the dentist for decades. If the impressions must be retrieved, it will not be difficult for the dentist to pull them in order to quickly reference the digital model of the patient’s mouth in a truly seamless manner.

Freedom Dental is at Your Service

Our dental professionals are proud to use the latest dental technologies. If you have not been to the dentist for a checkup in the last six months or are aware of an oral health issue, contact us right away to schedule an appointment. You can reach Freedom Dental² by dialing (707) 416-0626.

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