Blog Category: Iris Intraoral Camera

The Future of Digital Dentistry

Digital dentistry is growing at a fast pace and there is more on the horizon. For dental practices, the developments in the digital dentistry sphere mean that offices must play catch up in order to enjoy the numerous benefits that come with digitizing. Here are some of the benefits that will keep getting better as the future of digital dentistry becomes a reality.

Improved Workflow with Digital Dentistry

Improved workflow already exists because of digitization in the dental office. For example, the advances in intraoral cameras like the IRIS USB 2.0 Dental Camera have triggered a shift to paperless dental offices. Images from the intraoral camera can be stored in a patient’s digital file directly using the dental office management software integration with the imaging technology.

Similarly, it’s now easier than ever to receive or send the patient’s records if the primary dental care provider changes. All this is possible thanks to digilization.

Faster Turnaround Times for Dental Patients

The future of digital dentistry will also see a further reduction in the turnaround time needed to provide various aspects of dental care, such as the fabrication of restorations (dental crowns, for example).

This is possible because the links between the fabricators and dental offices are stronger due to digitization. A clear example is the way you can transmit the images captured by the XTG Handheld X-Ray and IRIS Intraoral scanner directly to a fabricator instead of preparing and shipping the mold. This reduced turnaround time eliminates lengthy wait time for patients who need restorations.

Better Diagnosis with Digital Dentistry

Patient care largely depends on the ability of a dental office’s accurate diagnosis of each condition before treatment procedures can be initiated. The future of digital dentistry contains many areas of diagnostics. For example, caries detection is evolving rapidly. Already, sub-enamel illumination devices like LUM have made examing the mouth a breeze. It was nearly impossible to have a clear quality picture in previous years. Before the LUM, dentists would miss important clues that would help in diagnosing the patient.

Lower Costs for Your Practice with Digital Dentistry

The future of digital dentistry also holds promise regarding the costs of providing care to patients. For example, the use of intraoral scanners and cameras like the IRIS USB 2.0 Chair Dental Camera increases the accuracy of the dental restorations made. In addition, costly rework is avoided, and the savings made are transferred to the patient in the form of lower charges.

Furthermore, the future of digital dentistry will see more in-house fabrication of restorations rather than what is the current practice of sending models and any fabrication work to external entities. Fabricating in-house can lower costs because the markup, shipping and other costs associated with outsourcing are avoided.

3D printing technology is also becoming more readily available, and its cost is dropping fast. This has exciting prospects because “dental restorations on demand” will become commonplace once this technology matures.

Improve Communication with Digital Dentistry

Digital dentistry also promises to improve communication at different levels. For example, the IRIS Intraoral Camera for Mac and all the other intraoral cameras made by Digital Doc have made case presentation a breeze because a dentist can simply display the images on a large screen in an operatory. Patients see the problems their dentist is referring to, so it is easier for those patients to accept the treatment recommendations of the dentist.

In addition to that, digital dentistry also allows dental offices to send patients online reminders or notifications about appointments and other related issues. In the future, the applications of digital dentistry will expand even further as the dental practice management software is further exploited in the wake of all the technological developments in the industry.

As you can see, the future of digital dentistry is full of promise, and dentists can take a proactive approach in bringing all the advancing technology to their offices as and when such technologies can increase efficiency cost-effectively. Digital Doc is happily available to help out during your office’s transition process.

How to Improve Case Acceptance in the Modern Dental Practice

How to improve case acceptance in modern dental practice

How to Improve Case Acceptance in the Modern Dental Practice

Your office may have experienced, and skilled staff, the latest dental technology, but that may come to nothing if your case acceptance rates are dismal. Read on and discover how to improve case acceptance in the modern dental practice.

Use Pictures, Rather Than Words

You can go on and on about treatments, but a patient may still say no to a necessary or recommended dental treatment procedure if they don’t see the importance of it. Why not just tell your patient, but show them what you can do for them.

If you use the appropriate images to show your patient a firsthand view of what the problem is, they’re likely to change their mind. For example, the patient may require deep cleaning instead of the routine cleaning that he or she had come for. Use the IRIS HD USB 3.0 Dental Camera to capture images of the affected teeth. Beam those images onto a large screen within the operatory so that the patient can see how serious the situation is. Your patient will then realize that your recommendation is indeed necessary, and he or she will likely move forward with the recommended procedure.

Emphasize Same Day Treatment

We live in a very busy world, and everyone seems to be pressed for time. How can your dental practice be more considerate of your patients’ time?

Case acceptance in the modern dental practice can increase significantly if same-day services are emphasized. Recent technologies, such as the XTG Handheld X-Ray from Digital Doc, have collapsed the time that was initially required for patient care. The handheld X-ray allows the dentist to get instant x-ray images that can be displayed on a screen and reviewed right then and there. So, any needed dental work can be completed during one visit instead of having the patient come back for additional appointments.

In short, digitize your dental practice so that same-day services become the norm. You will see an increase in case acceptance rates at your practice.

Show Your Dental Patient Urgency

Another way to increase case acceptance in the modern dental practice is to stress the risks of delayed treatment to your patient. For example, a patient who comes into the office with a toothache should be told that urgent treatment is needed before more damage is done, which will cause additional dental procedures like a root canal.

Fortunately, sub-enamel illumination technology like LUM can be paired with an IRIS Intraoral Camera to show the patient how extensive their dental problem is. Consequently, it is likely that the patient will agree to immediate treatment once they fully understand the urgency of the situation.

Adress Your Patient’s Fears of the Dental Treatment

Sometimes, case acceptance rates can take a tumble when you don’t address your patient’s fears. For example, a patient may postpone a needed surgical procedure simply because he or she fears that the procedure will be so complex that there will be complications and the recovery time will be longer than expected.

Your staff can learn to integrate language that removes fear from your patients during consultations. For example, as you discuss the images taken using the IRIS LTE USB 2.0 Dental Camera beamed on a screen, inform your patient that their tooth decay treatment is a routine procedure and they’ll be back to normal in no time. Additionally, you can explain that you have done it countless times without any problems. Addressing your patient’s fears will help increase the case acceptance rates of your dental practice.

Refrain from the Money Talk

Your work as a dentist is to educate and treat patients. Focus on doing just that and avoid discussing the cost of the procedure. Let the front office or billing department discuss this with the patient. The best thing you can do is educate your patient about their necessary treatment. Make the best use of the IRIS Intraoral Cameras to help the patient understand why the urgent treatment is needed.

As you can see from the discussion above, case acceptance in the modern dental practice largely depends on how you present the case to the patient and their understanding of the necessary treatment. Digital Doc can help you to digitize your practice so that better patient care can be offered efficiently without sacrificing attention to detail. Contact us today for a demonstration of how our products can help to skyrocket your case acceptance rates.

Communicating Dental Technology Advancements to Your Patients

It is common for staff at dental offices to hear patients commenting that “You have acquired another toy!” when they see a new piece of dental technology in the office. Such comments highlight how important it is for dental practices to communicate effectively with their patients about the technological advancements which have been obtained. That communication will not only improve your bottom line but it can also lead to dental practice growth due to a better appreciation of the effort and the resources you are investing in order to provide better patient care. The following are some of the avenues your dental practice can use to communicate dental technology advancements to your patients.

Call-Waiting Messages

How many existing and possible patients call your dental office each day? Those phone calls give you a big opportunity to communicate and showcase the latest technological advancements that you have acquired.

For example, if you have just installed an IRIS HD Camera, design recorded informational messages that can be played when a caller hasn’t been put through to one of your staff at the office. That message should pique the interest of the patient in the new technology and prompt him or her to ask for additional information about that technology when he or she visits the dental practice.

In this way, you can upsell that technology and increase the rates at which patients ask for the new technology to be used when they are being attended to. Consequently, the technology will quickly pay for itself when patients welcome it after hearing the message played as they wait to talk to someone at the dental office.

Email Blasts

The contact information of all your present and past clients can be harnessed to educate those individuals about the technological advancements you have made at the dental practice.

MailChimp and Constant Contact are some of the tools that you can use to design those email blasts so that you can get the word out about the latest technology which you have installed.

Remember to avoid being salesy in those email blasts. Otherwise, the patients may send the message to the spam folder. Just make the emails educational so that the patients are left feeling that it is up to them to decide whether such technology should be used during their next dental visit or not. Chances are that more and more of the patients who get those emails will want to try out the latest tool, such as an intraoral camera, available in the dental office.

In-Office Marketing

You can also do a lot to communicate dental technology advancements to your patients within the dental office. The dental office provides the best setting for the messages to hit home since the patient will rarely be distracted by other things, such as their work.

Prepare leaflets and flyers on the salient points about the new dental technology you have acquired. The key features of the technology and how the patient stands to benefit when that technology is used can be emphasized in the leaflets and flyers. Hand these materials to the patients and ask them to scan that information as they wait to see a professional (hygienist, dentist, etc.).

Educational videos can also be shown on the screen in your waiting room. The videos can show a practical application of technological advancements, such as the latest IRIS HD Camera so that patients see how useful the technology is. For example, the video can show how a hidden defect was detected using the technology.

Use Social Media

It is a good marketing practice to know where your existing patients and those you wish to target as future patients are spending their time so that you communicate to them about the technological advancements made by your dental practice. Social media is one of the places where you can convey your messaging.

Facebook Live is one feature you can exploit to reach your target audience. You can also engage the patients using your Facebook page so that vital information about the new technology can be shared. Any concerns that patients may have can be addressed before those patients visit your office for a routine or scheduled procedure.

Now may also be the time for you to get a YouTube channel that you can use to communicate dental technology advancements to your patients. Video communicates more effectively than the written word can so harness this mode of communication for better results at your dental practice.

Don’t acquire new technology and fail to make information about that technology available to your patients. Use the suggestions above as inspiration when selecting the most cost-effective ways through which you can communicate dental technology advancements, such as the acquisition of an IRIS HD intraoral camera, to your patients so that the dental practice can grow as a result of its fast uptake of technological advancements.

Best Intraoral Camera 2018

IRIS Intraoral Camera Wins 2018 Product Award

Dental Advisor submitted the IRIS Intraoral Camera to nine dentistry consultants and asked them to subject the camera to a clinical evaluation over a period of four months. Their verdict? IRIS was given a 96 percent clinical rating overall by that team of consultants. Read on and learn about this camera and what that 2018 evaluation entailed.

Overview of the IRIS Intraoral Dental Camera

The IRIS intraoral camera is a user-friendly dental camera which has a five-point focus wheel. A dentist can use this focus wheel to determine how large or how small the area captured in the image should be. Eight positions are available for the user to hone in on the type of image to be captured, such as clear images of the arch, entire smile, the full face and so many other areas of interest.

The IRIS intraoral camera comes with a cable which is 15-feet long so that the user isn’t constrained when moving about to capture a variety of images when a patient is in the operatory.

The camera comes with two capture buttons to suit operators who are either left-handed or right-handed. This has the added benefit of easing the capture of images even when the camera is being turned around in the mouth of the patient.

Sony’s hi-resolution CCD and eight-point LED lighting makes the camera capture clear and sharp images with true colors.

The IRIS intraoral camera requires 1GB RAM, a 2.0 USB interface and at least 2.0 GHz as its computer system requirements. IRIS now makes a version for MAC computers as well. The camera is charged via the USB port on any PC.

Other Reasons why more Dentist’s Choose IRIS

High Definition 720p resolution
Motion activated auto On/Off
8-point true white LED array
One-piece slim design soft tip
Dual capture buttons for left or right hand use
One-touch 5-position electronic focus for a macro to infinite viewing with OSD
High performance impact and chemical resistant seamless body
USB 3.0 connector that fits standard delivery units

What the Consultants Said

The Stainless Steel Wand. The consultants agreed that the sleek, stainless steel wand is ideal for a clinical setting since this material is easy to maintain at the high standards of hygiene expected in a hospital setting. The stainless steel can also stand up to the harshness of some of the cleaning products commonly used in dental offices and hospitals. This is unlike plastic wands that soon wear due to the impact of the cleaning products typically used in a dental office or hospital setting.

Camera Software. IRIS also received kudos because the software upon which it operates was found to be easy to integrate into most of the commonly used patient management systems in dental offices.

The Lens. The 90° lens makes positioning the camera to capture images easy and intuitive. The images captured will, therefore, be sharp and clear due to the natural orientation of the lens.

The Barrier Sheath. Not many cameras can work satisfactorily when a barrier sheath is in place. Some models don’t even allow a barrier sheath to be installed. The IRIS intraoral camera is one of those few dental cameras whose image quality isn’t affected even with a barrier sheath in place.

The Lighting. The LED lights were found to be more than adequate to illuminate the field as images are taken. Those lights could also be turned off as a user is capturing images that have been backlit by x-rays.

The Consultants’ Conclusions

11% of the consultants who evaluated the IRIS Intraoral Camera said that it was similar to other intraoral cameras available. However, the majority of the consultants were of the view that the IRIS intraoral camera was superior to the other products on the market. All the consultants were in agreement that they would recommend the IRIS Intraoral Camera to any dental practice which needed equipment. They also recommended that dental practices using the IRIS camera should install a cable kit in all the operatories where they expect to use the IRIS intraoral camera so that moving the camera from one operatory to another is seamless. All in all, Dental Advisor relied on the report of the consultants to award IRIS Intraoral Camera the 2018 Product Award.