Digital Dentistry

The field of dentistry is always undergoing constant innovation, with the common goal of improving the diagnosis and treatment of patients as efficiently as possible, so that you are able to receive needed treatments and return to your daily life as quickly as possible. Digital dentistry has provided new types of technology to allow your dentist to do just that.

What is iTero?

To treat patients, a dentist must sometimes create dental impressions of a patient’s teeth and bite. In the recent past, this involved the use of an impression gel that was not exactly popular with patients. The iTero system is a type of scanner that enhances the comfort of the patient, offering your dentist a greater degree of precision, while eliminating the discomfort of patients who no longer need to risk gagging or swallowing impression gel.

Enhanced Patient Comfort

If you are going to receive braces, Invisalign, or retainers, you would need to have impressions taken of your current smile so that an orthodontic procedure can be designed for you. This means that you would need dental impressions created, which involves the insertion of bulky metal trays and a liquid material against your jaws. After this material sets, it is transformed into a solid replica of your smile.

This technique is notoriously uncomfortable and time-consuming.

The iTero scanner offers enhanced comfort and a higher degree of accuracy.

Itero Scanner Benefits

Visual and voice commands are used in identifying teeth

Helps create a wide variety of dental restorations

Eliminates the necessity of coating teeth and resultant gagging
Maximum infection control provided by single-use imaging shields
Capable of providing adjustments in real time
Wireless transmission of information to the dental laboratory for additional processing
No protective patient wear necessary

How does iTero work?

Your dentist will be scanning your teeth using a small, handheld scanner to ensure that every angle possible is captured. Sometimes, your dentist must scan your entire mouth, while in other situations, only a certain section requires scanning.

The process should take only a few minutes to complete. At that point, your dentist will transmit the captured images to a computer, which will render them for the creation of a composite image. The completed product combines all angles into one 3D model of your teeth.

After your dentist has completed the image created by iTero, they can use the model for the creation of everything from dental implants to an Invisalign mold.

For More Information

If you have any questions or concerns about digital dentistry and iTero, we would love to hear from you. Please contact our office to ask any questions that you may have, or to schedule a consultation.