Intraoral scans are the starting point for every patient who enters Dr. Naren Rajan’s dental practice. There are several reasons for this. In this blog article, Dr. Rajan explains why you should scan every patient, especially your new patients.
The transparency of digital dental technology builds patient trust.
Once we started incorporating intraoral scanning into our diagnostic visits and using it as an educational tool, patients became more engaged with what was happening in their mouths. It is no coincidence that my practice grew these last few years.
Much more than a replacement for analog impressions
It wasn't too long ago that intraoral scanning was considered just a replacement for physical impression materials. However, advances in digital scanning hardware and software applications now allow us to use intraoral scanners to communicate, engage, and better educate patients.
I think we are seeing the scope and role of intraoral scanning undergoing a major shift. Not only have they replaced physical impression material and optimized our workflows with treatment partners, but for me, they have also become a key component in patient education protocols, diagnosis, treatment planning, and long-term patient management.
Non-restorative use of digital technology is redefining how we use intraoral scanners.
Why intraoral scan?
In our practice, we scan every new patient and at annual recalls. The scanner is a prominent feature of a patient's initial visit. We use it as an educational tool to explain findings, create engagement, and provide a unique patient experience.
Our operatories include big screen TVs to simulcast the intraoral scan as it is acquired so the patient can be involved in the scanning process. It allows patients to visually engage with their dental findings and creates a powerful communication tool.
Once we establish findings and options, the scans are shared at subsequent follow-up conferences in non-clinical consultation spaces to finalize treatment planning in a co-diagnostic manner.
When new patients come to us from a neighboring clinic or a retiring dentist, I can see from their reactions that their first visit with us is very different from the ones they've had in the past.
Transparency
When a patient sees their mouth in detail on a big screen, it becomes a co-discovery process. The patient is co-diagnosing their condition.
It brings me to one of the key reasons why you should scan every patient every time.
If you are unaware, the 3Shape TRIOS intraoral scanner line includes what they call "patient engagement apps" free with every scanner.
The four TRIOS patient engagement apps are Smile Design, Treatment Simulator, Patient Specific Motion, and Patient Monitoring. This last one, patient monitoring, I will focus on.
TRIOS Patient Monitoring (TPM)
TRIOS Patient Monitoring enables you to compare intraoral scans taken over time. It quantifies changes to the oral situation and highlights the changes in color on the scans compared. This way, you and your patient can quickly identify differences over time in their oral situation.
We have all had the conversation with our patients: "Doctor, is my bite changing?" or "Are my gums receding?" With TRIOS Patient Monitoring, we can show them to the tenth of a millimeter if there are any changes. In addition to visualizing the scans stacked upon each other, we can create a video timeline and watch, like a movie, the changes to their mouth over time.
The "difference maps" created by TPM mark anything stable in green, while anything colored yellow and red has changed. It makes it easy for both the practitioner and patient to identify contrasts.
Furthermore, we can slice the 3D scan in any direction and make 2D cross-sectional measurements and analyses.
With TPM, we are not only being transparent with our patients but imagine the enormous impact you are making. Patients are made aware of conditions they might not have known existed.
As a diagnostic and discovery instrument, TPM has created a lot of "aha" moments for my patients.
Comparing data sets throughout the prosthetic treatment
As an interesting side note and to what I referenced earlier, we also use TPM to compare data sets with our prosthetic treatments. TPM enables you to view the two scans as a 2-D cross-section. The cross-sectional analysis allows for precise measurements of the different datasets down to a tenth of a millimeter.
It enables me to assess, evaluate, and critique a case at levels of detail not possible without current digital technology. You are seeing tooth measurement data that is comparable in detail to what dental technicians work with when using CAD design software.
With hand-layered restorations, it can be especially valuable to verify that the layered ceramic is consistent with the other datasets in the timeline (i.e., the approved mock-up and provisionals).
We can evaluate laboratory work and predict how well a try-in visit will go before trying the units in the patient's mouth.
The benefit of prosthetic timelining to both clinician and patient is the ability to design an outcome virtually and to be able to deliver that design to the patient predictably.
In addition, the final milestone scan of the completed restorations also provides a key dataset of the finished case if changes are needed in the future or in case of a remake due to breakage. We can use a future intraoral scan to compare it against the final milestone scan.
Why scan every patient?
Because patient experience is your biggest referral tool.
Your patients are your biggest advocates, the easiest and most cost-efficient way to spread the word about your clinic.
Once my practice started incorporating intraoral scanning into diagnostic visits and using it as an educational tool, it became a way to show patients what was happening in their mouths. It created transparency in our work and built trust with new patients.
Word of mouth
Patient advocacy, as I wrote about earlier, is your most personal form of marketing. But it is often overlooked. We all know patients talk with their friends and family.
Using 3Shape engagement apps like Patient Monitoring has differentiated our clinic from neighboring clinics. We get referrals because of digital dentistry.
In my town, I have become a regional opinion leader. It has led to many more referrals with my specialist partners because they see the level of data that I'm collecting and how I'm interpreting it.
I've become a specialist in the area for many other specialists. That traces back to my getting started with the TRIOS.
Digital smile design, patient monitoring software, and prosthetic timelining protocols allow unprecedented collaboration and predictability in prosthetic dentistry.
The bottom line
We once considered intraoral scanning a more comfortable replacement for physical impressions. It is. But its most significant contribution to my practice is how it enables us, as dentists, to communicate, engage, and educate our patients better than ever before. We are building trust.
