“When are you going digital, Doctor?†Every dentist who has a dental supply rep call on them has heard this question repeatedly. Many dentists have taken the plunge and converted from film based radiographs to digital radiographs. For those offices who have not yet made the switch, let’s review the benefits.
Digital radiography has changed the way dentistry is practiced. The act of viewing X-rays on a monitor instead of on a view box brings with it several advantages.
1. Size: It sounds simple, but simply having a larger image makes it easier to diagnose the radiograph, and enables you to spot problems earlier. It also makes it easier to show these problems to your patients. This results in better patient understanding, and the result higher treatment plan acceptance.
2. Image Optimization: Film based developers have chemicals which get old and lose their efficacy. Digital X-ray imaging quality is much longer lasting (though eventually sensors drop pixels and phosphor plates age and image quality degrades). Good software gives us the ability to darken/lighten individual images. This allows us to view the perfect image. Additional software tools can let us measure distance or even bone density, and assign a number to it that we can track over time.
3. Time Management: Digital X-rays are so much faster than traditional X-ray developers that your staff saves valuable minutes on each patient. Even endo procedures will go faster. Some will argue that you can see more patients in a day, but this isn’t likely. What is probable is that your staff will have more time to spend with the patients, improving chair side manner, and more time to disinfect, clean, and prepare for the next patient.
4. No Chemicals/Reduced Maintenance: Whether you believe in the concept of ‘green’ or not, everyone appreciates saving money. With traditional X-rays developers you are constantly paying for chemicals and the labor to clean the developer, and parts and labor for repairs. Computers sometime break down, but it’s much more likely that you would be down only in one room. In addition, the computer repair bill is probably less expensive than your service technician and parts.
So, when are you going digital Doctor?
Tags for this article :Tags: Dental Equipment, Dental Imaging and X-Ray
