Dental Softwarethe Future Is Coming

By Author: Larry Emmott
Total Articles: 7
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Today: The patient signs in then fills out a form on a clipboard and the staff enters the information.

Future: A patient enters the dental office and immediately the PDA (personal digital assistant; that is a combination handheld computer, cell phone, web browser, camera, music video player and GPS) in their pocket or purse connects with the dental software system in the office using a wireless connection. This alerts the dental office the patient is there and also instantly updates all personal information such as address, insurance, or changes in family status.

Today: The patient fills out a medical history on paper on the clipboard. Hopefully they can remember everything.

Future: The patient's health history is accessed from the national data base and an artificial intelligence (AI) program analyses the information and sends back a condensed report with specific conditions noted and a series of interview questions to ask the patient and appropriate measures stipulated for dental procedures.

Today: The dentist with the help of an assistant gathers diagnostic information; he/she sticks the teeth ...
... with an explorer, observes the tissue, probes the sulcus, palpates, looks for red or white lesions, checks the bite with carbon paper, takes radiographs and fills the patient's mouth with goo to make a study model.

The dentist then makes a diagnosis based on his/her subjective evaluations of how things looked or felt compared to some personal norm based on training and experience.

Future: All diagnostic information is collected in a few minutes using two digital scanning devices. A cone beam like device does two rapid radiographic scans of the head one with the teeth occluded and another as the patient opens wide. The second device goes in the mouth and does scans with different types of light. This intraoral scan picks up changes in temperature indicating inflammation; it detects bacterial fluorescence indicating the effectiveness of home care and carious activity. It detects calculus. It evaluates translucence. It detects changes in the epithelium that indicate cancer or other changes.

This digital information isn't seen by the dentist but is examined by the dental software. Once the data is collected the software using artificial intelligence compares all the findings to a gigantic data base. The data base and the diagnostic software are not in the dental office but stored on enormous secure servers the dentist can access through the Internet. The data base has a huge range of both normal and pathological findings. Based on this the software provides a differential diagnosis, a very accurate probability of diagnostic accuracy and a course of treatment.

The software displays a 3D image of the mouth, the hard and soft tissue, even facial features. The dentist can manipulate the image in space to observe from all sides and even watch the TMJ move through an opening sequence. The software can zoom in to display a single tooth, highlight a lesion or show bacterial plaque.

Dr. Larry Emmott and the Emmott on Technology dental management team of dental management consultants mission is to help dentists make wise technology choices minimize costs and maximize profits through the effective use of computers and technology. Article Source: EmmottonTechnology.com