What so great about ITero 3-D scanning?

More and more dental offices around the country (and around the world, really) are starting to take full advantage of ITero 3-D scanning technology and improving the dental service results they are capable of providing at the same time.

Before ITero 3-D scanning solutions became as technologically advanced, as reliable, and as widespread as they are today, orthodontists had to take dental impressions to achieve accurate and reliable three-dimensional models of teeth that they were going to be working on.

These models are a big part of creating braces, retainers, and of modeling teeth that need to be measured or repaired, and the old method – creating that dental impression – was time-consuming and comparatively inaccurate. Patients were forced to have a squishy, rubbery, gooey mixture’s most all over their teeth and then were forced to hold that position – without moving – for anywhere between 60 seconds and 120 seconds to allow the dental impression “goo” to harden in the mold to do its job.

And while many professional orthodontists and dental experts have found ways to make the dental impression process a lot more streamlined and a lot more comfortable for their patients, at the end of the day most dental patients that had to go through this process would report that it was their least favorite aspect of visiting the dental office in the first place!

It wasn’t at all uncommon to see dental patients gagging, choking, and even throwing up because of the dental impression process and the odd tactile feedback of the dental impression material to begin with.

With the ITero technology, the entire process takes no time at all, doesn’t require any invasion of the mouth cavity with gooey substances, and can render far more accurate and usable 3-D models in record time.

All that is involved as a quick “runaround” your smile with what looks like an oversized and extrawide pen or wand and the entire ITero 3-D scanning process has concluded. As many breaks as necessary can be taken, no goofy substances are poured into your mouth, and you don’t have to deal with any of the headache or hassle the traditional dental imprint procedures always involved.

On top of that – as if this wasn’t reason enough for most orthodontists to move to ITero 3-D scanning solutions ASAP – the images that are scanned by this technology can be taken advantage of immediately. The information is instantly forwarded over to a centralized database and tagged with each individual dental patient’s information and details, not only providing for accurate recall of each individual scam that is taken but also allowing dental experts and patients themselves to better understand how their teeth are moving and shifting over time.

The scans (as many as are necessary) also present themselves immediately on an active monitoring board. Orthodontists and dentists can show you exactly how your teeth look in your smile, exactly how they should look (using predictive modeling) and show you how the solutions that they are proposing to resolve whatever issues may be underlying are going to work – and what your finished smile is going to look like when everything is all said and done.

Again, all of this (ALL of this) can be done in the blink of an eye, and in many cases a whole lot faster than it would have taken traditional dental imprint material to harden in your mouth. This kind of “life feedback” gives dental patients a lot of comfort, a lot of confidence, and a better understanding of everything that their orthodontist is recommending.

This is huge, specifically when you’re asking them to wear hardware or orthodontic pieces that are going to impact their day to day lives while they are wearing them and for years afterwards as well.

All things considered, the ITero 3-D scanning technology – especially when combined with predictive modeling, active modeling, and database analysis add-ons/features – has the ability to completely transform the way that you interact with each and every one of your dental patients.

Best of all, because this technology is so easy to use and so fast acting, you can even use it as part of an initial consultation to show your prospective orthodontic clients what their teeth look like right now, the fixes that you would propose before digging a little bit deeper, and how those fixes could result in a much straighter, a much better aligned, and a much happier smile without too much extra effort!

ITero 3-D scanning technology represents the cutting edge of dental technology today and is only getting better and better on a routine basis. Periodic updates to this platform will make it even faster, even more reliable, and even more accurate and it is proving to be one of the most essential pieces of new technology that belongs in every dental office in the world.