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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. β 34. 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.β Charles Darwin said, βIt 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.β 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 35.