With the dental industry worth more than $1.56 billion in the United States, there are bound to be innovations from time to time that benefit both the patient the dentist. 3D scanning has come to the forefront of the industry that has helped created easier, exact, and efficient impressions for practices while improving the customer experience. There are three main benefits of incorporating 3D scanning into a practice in which we’ll be reviewing.

Implementing new technology and advanced software only makes sense when it’s intuitive and can improve an aspect of practice. 3D Scanning has developed a convenient way of creating impressions of the patient’s teeth. 3D Wands are inserted into a patient’s mouth and slowly moved throughout, creating digital impressions nearby on screen. With the ease of the wand, there’s no gagging or need for alginate which can be messy and sloppy on the patient. It can be an unpleasant experience for patients to create impressions but with 3D technology, it becomes more efficient and easier for everyone involved in the process.

No matter what medical or health care industry you’re in, speed plays a huge role in patient satisfaction. With 3D scanning, you’ll be able to deliver to your patients a more exact replica of their teeth and speed up the process. Dental labs are able to immediately receive the digital files instead of waiting for the impressions to harden and be sent to the dental lab. Within minutes, your dental lab can have exact 3D impressions on the computer screen ready for the step in the process. This also reduces turnaround time for patients who receive dental products.

3D Scanning is exact, easier, and speeds up the process but it also can free space at your practice or dental lab. Keeping the impressions of patients requires space and time to sort. With 3D impressions that are digital, you’ll be able to store the files safely and neatly onto your server. This eliminates the process of lab techs searching for impressions all over the facility or double-checking impressions to make sure they haven’t cracked. Dental facilities that have 3D scanned impressions allow customers to reorder products. It also means that no new impressions are required for each visit especially if the patient kept their impressions and lost them.

The next step in the dental industry is already here with 3D scanning. It’s a process that has been implemented for the last few years and should now be considered mainstream. For patients, it’s less intimidating than having sloppy impression material in their mouth and the process overall has led to quicker processing times and better organization for dentists all across the United States. 3D scanning isn’t on the horizon, it’s here!