THE DIGITAL STREAM

Carestream Dental asked a number of experts for their opinions on what the big trends in oral health care will be in 2017. Larry Emmott, D.D.S., weighed in:

Are you afraid of some sinister hacker lurking in cyberspace ready to pounce on your dental office data? Are you at risk of a dental data breach? If you experience a significant (500 or more records) data breach, you are subject to onerous and expensive HIPAA rules of notification—and even possible fines. A data breach is a real and potentially serious problem for dental offices.

The provision of affordable treatment is the major issue facing our healthcare system. All other problems flow from that. As a general rule, patients care about quality outcomes and the overall experience of a healthcare encounter. They do not care as much about cost if they do not pay directly for treatment.

Patients have no way to accurately judge the quality of dental care. They cannot realistically evaluate the fit of a margin or the cleanliness of a root surface. However, they can easily see how clean the countertops are. They know how friendly the staff is and will notice how up to date the office technology is.

To mill or not to mill, that is the question. In the past, you had two choices once you acquired a digital impression: you could design a restoration and mill it out in your office (CAD-CAM), or you could send the digital impression to a lab just like you used to send a PVS impression.

In dentistry, digital records, digital radiographs and digital photography already predominate. The next big change, already underway, will be digital impressions. Future technologies will include diagnostics and artificial intelligence.

The fact that Windows PC products won’t work with Apple, Apple doesn’t work with Android and vice versa is just the most visible compatibility battle. In dentistry, we are plagued with proprietary systems that refuse to play together. Digital impressions, digital x-rays, and even digital records can’t be transferred from one system to another. This is good for the manufacturer but not good for the dentist.

Once an item is digitized, there are three very significant things you can do with it. You can store transmit and manipulate or enhance it using a computer or a computer network; in other words, you can take a digital impression and store it on a server it does not get lost taking up space on a closet shelf. You can transmit it to a lab instantly, no boxes and FedEx trucks needed

It is easy to see technology just as machines and networks but I have always believed the real significance, the real value of technology comes when we use it to improve the human condition. Dr. Tony Romanazzi, a dentist from Glens Falls, New York in the Hudson River Valley, told me a lovely story that demonstrates this idea perfectly.