The Diagnosis Is in the Details

In dentistry, the devil is often in the details—whether that “detail” is an abscessed tooth, occult decay, or the root cause of a patient’s TMJ issues. That's why new patients at Aria Dental Implant Center are treated to a round of 2D x-rays, digital impressions, and CBCT scans when medically necessary.

“Patients will often ask me, ‘Why are you taking all these images right now? We just met,’” said Dr. Joe Mehranfar, owner of the Phoenix, AZ, practice and a well-known mentor, lecturer, and expert in the field of implant dentistry. “I tell them that there is only 1 correct diagnosis, and in order to create a proper treatment plan, I need to find it.”

Where Equipment Meets Software

To do that, Dr. Mehranfar leverages a variety of DEXIS equipment—including 2 DEXIS OP 3D digital x-ray systems, an i-CAT FLX cone beam imaging unit, NOMAD Pro 2 handheld x-ray machines, DEXIS Titanium sensors, and a DEXIS IS 3800 intraoral scanner. It’s all tied together via DTX Studio Clinic, a dental imaging software that brings the acquired 2D and 3D imaging data together for diagnostics, treatments, and follow-ups.

Keep Your Images Close

A central hub for patient data, DTX Studio Clinic allows practices to acquire images from 2D and 3D devices directly from the software. Once captured, a SmartLayout feature creates a multimodality gallery that hosts up to 12 viewers on a single screen—all clustered by location and dynamically stored for future patient visits. 

In Dr. Mehranfar's practice, 99% of image acquisition is handled by team members, who use the images to interact with patients on a higher level. "It’s such a ‘wow’ factor for the patient when they can truly see the importance of all this data,” he said, adding that this makes patients more comfortable in the chair while building credibility for the practice.

Simple Treatment Planning

As soon as a CBCT scan is acquired via DTX Studio Clinic, the treatment plan takes flight. "We can quickly view the scan and formulate a treatment plan by manipulating and maneuvering the implant placement within the jawbone. Within minutes, I have a treatment plan formulated,” said Dr. Mehranfar. “If I need to take it to the next level and communicate with my lab, team members, or colleagues, I just do a quick export of the images into DTX Studio Implant," a planning module housed within the platform.

“Now, we can do a prosthetically driven surgical workflow,” he said. “I can export not only the PLY files from the intraoral scan, but also our DICOM fi les with our implant plan into X-Guide," which is a 3D navigation system that delivers real-time interactive drill position guidance during implant surgery. “All this data can be exported without needing to manipulate the implant, because the plan has already been saved and memorized. We simply move it across different modules within DTX."

Software That’s Getting Smarter

While assisted intelligence (AI) is still in its infancy, DEXIS already has infused several “smart” features into its equipment and software. Dr. Mehranfar said the smart technology has enhanced the capabilities of DTX Studio Clinic and allowed for quicker navigation.

For example, DEXIS recently announced FDA clearance for 2D AI dental findings on intraoral x-ray images. This new functionality includes 6 types of pathological dental findings on periapical and bitewing intraoral images—caries, marginal discrepancies, root canal defects, periapical radiolucency, bone loss, and calculus.

“For diagnosing on 2D images, it’s great,” said Dr. Mehranfar. “If you take a full-mouth series of x-rays, it really helps navigate and showcase problematic areas, which sets the stage for us to focus on abnormalities. On the surgical side, it helps with setting up parameters so we can review scans quickly—for example, mapping the nerve bilaterally or navigating the airway.”

SmartFocus provides tooth-by-tooth navigation through patient images taken from different devices and sessions, while SmartFusion allows Dr. Mehranfar to combine surface models with CBCT scan data using proprietary voxel-based algorithms. “This allows us to show patients the root positioning of their tooth so we can explain defects and how to correct them.”

A Partner in DEXIS

In Dr. Mehranfar’s opinion, dentistry has no room for gray areas. “We cannot do implant surgery without having the right diagnostic tools or the right data,” he said. “For clinicians to provide proper care, we need diagnostic tools like CBCT and intraoral scanning, and we need to be able to merge the data from these modalities together.”

The airtight marriage between DEXIS hardware and DTX Studio Clinic allows practices to do just that.

“From any operatory, I have access to patient data and can easily share it with my team members, lab partners, professional colleagues, and even patients,” added Dr. Mehranfar. “DEXIS has done a beautiful job putting forth the equipment necessary for any kind of surgical treatment, and DTX allows us to easily manage all this data from a single location.”