Small Equipment—Big Impact: Incorporating Technology into the Dental Office
The core purpose of any dental technology, regardless of its size, is to make the clinician either see better, diagnose better, or perform better. For example, having a full-service commercial CAD/CAM laboratory located within our office has certainly showed us the incredible benefits of implementing dental technology on a large scale. We quickly discovered how milling units, digital printers, and sintering ovens could exponentially improve our ability to fabricate quality restorations for our patients.
However, when it comes to making a big impact on your day-to-day patient care, it’s important to look beyond the large equipment. Why? Because it’s the small equipment—curing lights, loupes, handpieces, and the like—that can most significantly impact the ease and efficacy of our daily practice.
I was fortunate to be exposed to the benefits of adding small equipment technology via the use of loupes while in dental school, which greatly improved my treatment efficiency and ergonomics.
As such, it was only a matter of progression that headlights, operating microscopes, and lasers were added to my array of treatment aides. Each newly obtained piece of equipment made treatment easier to render and resulted in improved clinical outcomes which, in turn, increased my job satisfaction and desire for improvement.
The October issue of Dental Product Shopper will feature profiles on some of the small equipment that is critical to our clinical success, including loupes, illumination systems, and isolation units, which are all indispensable tools in our office. Additionally, you can read up on other must-have small equipment such as handpieces, intraoral cameras, and digital sensors—all of which will allow you to do your best dentistry.
For those of my peers who may be hesitant to incorporate new dental technology into their daily practice, my suggestion would be to start small. Use this issue of DPS as a guide to help you select and research the items that might best improve your efficiency and patient care. You may find that adding some of the equipment highlighted in this issue may rekindle or further fuel your passion for clinical excellence. And that is no small feat.
Arthur Volker, DDS, MSEd, FAGD
Sunnyside, NY