Browsing 3 posts in dental operating microscope.

The digital consultation: a benefit of a high tech dentist

In the mid-90's, this was a "must have" for every dental student!

I’m a technophile. Which is a really nice way of saying that I’m a sucker for a cool gadget. I had my first laptop in 1993 (an Apple Powerbook 160) and used it to take notes in dental school. It was an absolute clunker and had a greyscale screen, but I loved it. I carried that cinder block around like newborn baby!

Dentistry is a profession that has LOTS of gadgets. In fact, there’s so many gadgets that a dentist really needs to be wise about choosing technology. Many times in my career I’ve brought in a technology that was marketed brilliantly but wasn’t very helpful to patients. I’ve become more choosy about the technology I incorporate as I’ve matured in my career.

Technologies that involve magnification and imaging (taking pictures) are very important to me. I use high powered loupes and an LED headlamp for all procedures and exams, unless I’m using my dental operating microscope. We also have intraoral cameras in each operatory and a digital SLR camera. These technologies also lend themselves to taking photos of procedures and conditions and being able to explain dental problems and proposed treatments using digital photos. Along those similar lines, our office has been using digital x-ray technology since 2007.

Digital x-rays are a cool technology for many reasons. First, how neat is it that we can snap an x-ray of your tooth and it appears on a computer screen in a matter of seconds? I don’t care who you are, that’s just cool! Software allows us to change the size, crop and zoom and even accentuate the image in a way that we never could when we were using film. Further, the image is on a huge computer screen instead of a tiny film. And if that wasn’t enough, digital x-rays use only 20% (or less) radiation than film x-rays!

digital x-rays: less radiation and more options

So, I can make digital photos and digital x-rays of teeth. It’s very convenient and very cool. Here at Mead Family Dental, we’ve taken it one step further. We use the technology to save you money!

Let’s just say you’re my patient and you’ve come in to have your teeth cleaned. When I do your exam I find a raised white patch on the side of your tongue. Now I’ve seen quite a few tongues in my career, but my training is limited in the identification of these kind of lesions. So what do I do? I typically send you to a specialist. In this case, I’d send you to an oral surgeon. The surgeon would first schedule you to examine the spot and then would decide if there is a need to biopsy the lesion. In many cases, the surgeon has had enough experience seeing this kind of pathology that a photo or x-ray would be enough for them to decide whether it’s something that can be monitored or it’s something that needs to be examined in their office.

So now we come back to our slick digital technology. I’ve already taken several photos of this suspicious white patch on your tongue. I email the photos along with a description of the lesion. Usually within a few hours or at most a day or two I get an answer back from the surgeon saying, “I think we can monitor this until their next visit” or “we should probably set up an appointment in our office.” What I did was get an opinion from a specialist without you having to visit the specialist. I do this all the time. Consulting specialists has become much simpler and in many cases much less expensive because of the technology that we have at the office.

Technology in medicine is constantly evolving. Here at Mead Family Dental, we’re trying to choose the technologies that make our patient care better, more efficient and more cost conscious. Doing what’s best for our patients is our #1 goal!

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If you’re looking for a dentist in Saginaw, we’re always happy to accept new patients! You can request an appointment online or call the office at (989) 799-9133. And, as always, you can email me at alan@meadfamilydental.com. I always answer my own emails!

One reason to avoid sealants

Sealants. Sold to dentists and patients alike as the cutting edge of minimally invasive and preventive dentistry. The concept was “close those grooves” and you’d save that tooth from getting cavities. The problem is that if the grooves aren’t really explored and cleaned out, under high magnification, then decay can be left accidentally.

In many cases, sealants were being placed by hygienists and dental assistants who aren’t able to diagnose or remove decay. There is a certain mindset that sealants can be placed with no numbing and very little trouble. A lot of these sealants (research suggests 92% after 10 years) are failing, and the result can be big dental problems in the future!

I’ve written about these decay prone grooves in the past. I think that a lot of dental problems in adults come from undertreating these grooves and missing this hidden decay.

Do you have groovy teeth? Or do you not even know? If you’d like to know, we’d love help out! In fact, we’d like to be your Saginaw dentist! Feel free to call the office at (989) 799-9133, request an appointment online or email me at alan@meadfamilydental.com. You definitely should have a groovy life, but we’d less groovy teeth!

Microscope madness!

I've been a "magnfication junkie" for as long as I've been practicing dentistry.  I began using loupes (the magnfiers mounted on glasses) while I was still in dental school and began using a loupe mounted headlamp in 1998.  Many patients may remember that I would often forget to remove the fiberoptic cable from the lightbox in the operatory and I would practically strangle myself when I walked away.  Good times!

I have increased the magnification of my loupes from 2.0 to 2.8 to 3.8 and now finally to 6.0.  The greater the magnification the more detail I'm able to see.  3-4 years ago I attempted to move up to 8.0x loupes.  The problem with those was that I literally couldn't hold my body still enough for the magnification.  It was so much magnification that the slight movements I made while breathing, even when I was sitting still, made it impossible to see well.  Also, there really wasn't enough light, even with my new LED headlamp (brighter, not attached to the counter).  

So I had reached my limit of magnification.  Which was still awesome at 6.0, but I wanted more!  For years I had been kicking around the idea of getting a dental operating microscope.  I had seen them in the offices of root canal specialists and I had a chance to see them at dental meetings.  I had even tried them in my own office with demonstrations.  I held off on buying them because 1) they require a complete change in the way you work and 2) I didn't want it to become a very expensive coat rack in my operatory.

Finally, in November of 2010 I went to the Academy of Microscope Enhanced Dentistry (AMED) meeting in Santa Barbara, California.  I had a chance to see lectures from some very forward thinking dentists as well as try out all the different models and features.  

At the end of November I went ahead and got one.  
My only regret is not having done it sooner!  It takes care of the "not enough light problem" as well as the "slight movement of my body causing blurring of my visual field" problem.  

The microscope is a Seiler Instruments xR6.  I have a camera mounted on it that allows me to take high resolution still images as well as high resolution video.  My next project is to put high resolution monitors into the operatory that will allow patients and assistants to see what I'm seeing through the microscope in real time!

Why do I go through all of the trouble for my magnification habit, you might ask?  The answer is easy.  Better magnification makes me do better dentistry than I can do without it.  Simple as that.  Now that I'm incorporating a camera, it also allows me to communicate with patients and other dentists much better.  

This is one of the most exciting developments of my entire dental career!  I promise to keep you posted on this exciting piece of technology!

Questions or comments?  Feel free to email me at: alan@meadfamilydental.com.  I read and answer all of my own email and love to hear from readers of the blog!