My primary motivation for investing in the Axeos was that I wanted to start placing dental implants, and my personal belief is if you’re going to place implants, cone beam imaging should be the standard of care.
But first, I needed to sharpen my skills. As part of the equipment purchase, I was issued education vouchers to attend 2 hands-on Clinical Accelerator Advanced Training courses—ImplantAccelerator and EndoAccelerator—and received a CDOCS online membership for exclusive access to video content and the online community forum.
Once I started using Axeos and seeing everything in such high-quality 3D, I saw my treatment predictability increase and my patients’ postoperative sensitivity decrease. It has allowed me to place implants and perform root canals much more successfully because I can see inside the tooth and understand how many canals I’m dealing with prior to treatment.
Particularly, my implant patients are very appreciative that they no longer need to visit another dental office. In fact, patients who’ve said “no” to implants before are finally ready to say “yes” now that we have the technology to place them in-house. They know that they can trust me, and they’re thrilled that I’ll be the one providing their treatment.
The Power of Perspective
One thing I really like about the Axeos is its 4 different fields of view (FOV). The 2 FOVs that we use the most are the smallest and the largest. The 5x5.5-cm FOV is ideal for thorough diagnosis of a localized area, such as when the patient says, “I’ve got a toothache here,” while the 17x13-cm FOV is great for regular checkups every 3 to 5 years.
Research shows our diagnostics can change up to 60% of the time when we see what’s going on in 2D vs 3D, and I have many cases where the 2D images showed nothing but in 3D (see case example below), the problem became crystal clear. It has the potential to open up so many treatment avenues and possibilities.
Comprehensive Healthcare Insights
By storing my cone beam images in DS Core, Dentsply Sirona’s cloud-based digital ecosystem, it’s incredibly easy to share our images with specialists and other third parties. With the click of a button, I can send scans to Dental Radiology Diagnostics (DRDx) for an overread or to my patients’ medical doctors for evaluation. Some specialists who were hesitant to download files onto their computer from a CD or thumb drive can now use DS Core’s online viewer to see patient images simply by creating a free account.
There are a lot of medical-related diagnoses that we might miss as dentists, but if I see something out of the ordinary on a 3D image, I can provide more comprehensive healthcare. We have been able to find tonsil stones, calcification in carotid arteries, and pain caused by sinus inflammation or a sinus infection. There was even a case where a patient who works in construction appeared to have a piece of aluminum siding wedged in their nasal passage. Using the Axeos’ full FOV with the accompanying SICAT software is a great conversation starter for patients with constricted airways who could be struggling with sleep apnea without realizing it—that is, until we show them the 3D images.
In certain cases, I tell my patients that their scan is worth being looked at by a board-certified oral maxillofacial radiologist. When I advise them of the added cost, I assure them I am only billing the rate that’s charged to me. I make no extra money by doing this, but it saves us time and is an all-around great service to offer.
Smart Settings for Superior Imaging
Axeos really helps our dental team position the patient. Its smart height adjustment automatically sets the unit to the patient’s height, and my staff and I also can see whether a patient is too high or too low by looking at the interface and then adjusting to get the occlusal plane level for proper imaging.
When faced with amalgam fillings, metal crowns, and PFMs that could obscure the image quality, Axeos does a great job with noise reduction while lowering the amount of potential radiation exposure. It makes me more comfortable reading what I’m seeing, and it boosts my confidence that stitched files from my Primescan and Axeos will be clear. Even with metal, it tends to find the margins and lock in right where I want it to.
Confident Care
Ultimately, the DS Core digital ecosystem I have in my office with our Primescan, Primeprint, Primemill, Axeos, and their accompanying software solutions ensure we’re ready to do an implant case 100% in-house—from diagnosing the problem and planning where the implant and crown will be placed to designing and printing the surgical guide and performing successful treatment. Thanks to this technology, patients can come to our office and get a root canal or crown all in a single visit, which boosts efficiency and confidence on both sides of the chair.
