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Digital Revolution
By Dr. Bruno AzeVeDo
R
ecently our nation was mesmerized
by the power and size of Hurricane
Sandy, which destroyed entire
communities in the Northeast USA. As
we learned from another natural disaster
(Hurricane Katrina) several years ago, a
digital practice means that, no matter what
happens to your physical space during
a natural disaster, your patient records/
images are protected as long as you have a
backup. In light of the destruction left behind
by Sandy and Katrina, it is hard to imagine
all of the patient information that was lost as
a result of those two natural disasters and
how lucky the dentists were who had digital
records and could resume treatment when
their practices were restored to normal.
pictured: Digital image enhanced for periodontics diagnosis.
“
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It is not the strongest of the
species that survives, nor the
most intelligent that survives.
It is the one that is the most
adaptable to change.”
Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest
of the species that survives, nor the most
intelligent that survives. It is the one that
is the most adaptable to change.” Dentists
can benefit by embracing the use of digital
radiographs and 3D imaging. It is important
to remember that we are on a constant
quest to provide better-quality patient care
at lower costs, to obtain high-resolution
images at low exposures, to respect the As
Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA)
principle, and to acquire information from
the Region of Interest. Digital imaging
is considered to be best practice, which
means that this system is identified by public
and private organizations as the solution that
performs exceptionally well and is widely
recognized as an improvement to diagnostic
performance in the dental practice.
Dental digital imaging is not a new concept;
we have been using digital sensors for
TECHNOLOGY
the past 20 years. However, many dental
practices are still using the old analog
films. Despite our being surrounded by the
digital revolution in other aspects of our
daily lives, film-based radiographs are still
used in large scale in the USA. Practitioners
routinely cite reasons such as cost, fear,
patient comfort, and IT-related issues for
their reluctance to make the switch. Most of
those reasons can be discredited when we
think about the most important asset in our
practices: the patient. These practitioners
fail to note that patients benefit the most from
digital imaging due to improved diagnostic
performance and clinical efficiency in a
digital dental practice.
In the daily practice, digital imaging is
easier and faster to acquire than traditional
films. Digital sensors require fewer image
acquisition steps and eliminate darkroom
space, plumbing, processor, chemical
supplies and maintenance costs. Film
costs are decreased to nearly zero, no
more dealing with lead foil, no more film
sorting and mounting (along with film
duplication for billing purposes), and there
is virtually no displacement of radiographs.
Another important advantage is the drastic
reduction in film retakes, since 90% of all
retakes are related to problems in the dark
room or processing of the film. A digital
procedure also requires less physical
space, since electronic storage is so
streamlined, which leads our discussion to
an important advantage of digital imagingdigital storage.
Digital sensors produce superb highresolution images-much greater than
film. In the case of panoramic imaging, we
have more than doubled the resolution of
traditional film-based panos, and the new
generations of panoramic units have robotic
arms that allow for faster acquisition times,
better patient stabilization, and easier
patient positioning, and they are upgradable
if you wish to acquire the 3D Cone Beam
Computer Tomography (CBCT). Traditional
2D imaging enhancement and magnification
improves diagnosis of caries, periodontal
disease, and early stages of pathology.
Pictured: Above: Caries enhancement. Lower
right: Digital x-ray. Middle and Lower Left: Digital
enhanced images to show fractured tooth #11.
Burkhart Dental | CATALYST MAGAZINE | Issue 2, 2013
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