Dental technology has evolved to help your dentist treat pain, determine best treatment options and improve your experience. Here, our Regina dentists explain some of the technological tools we use in dental procedures.
What is dental technology?
When you visit your dentist’s office, you might notice that dental technology, tools and treatment have changed since you were a kid. Modern day technologies now help dentists detect and treat many issues more comfortably and efficiently than with conventional methods.
Digital Dental Impressions
If you’ve ever had to get braces, a retainer, implant, mouth guard or other appliance, you've no doubt dreaded the feeling of that U-shaped tray in your mouth, filled with the alginate or polyvinyl siloxane that's required to make an accurate mold of your teeth.
But with digital dental impressions, we do away with the goop in favour of using optical scanning devices to create virtual, computer-generated models of your mouth's hard and soft tissues. These devices capture highly accurate data in just minutes - without the mess.
Digital Dental X-rays
You know the drill with this dental procedure: every so often, your dentist puts a large camera up to the side of your head, takes a picture, and examines the negatives of your teeth. Now, we use digital sensors instead of traditional photographic x-ray film to capture images. This results in fewer retakes, and incredibly detailed computer images of your gums, teeth, and other parts of your mouth.
Digital dental x-rays allow your dentist to get clearer images with less fuss, so your dentist can make a faster, more accurate diagnosis.
Panoramic X-rays
While traditional x-rays provide multiple images of your mouth, we take panoramic dental x-rays to make just one image of your entire mouth. This image includes your teeth, upper and lower jaws, temporomandibular joints (TMJ), and your nasal and sinus areas.
This gives the dentist a flat representation of your jaw’s curved structure, and allows us to analyze each part of your mouth in relation to the whole.
Dental Lasers
Lasers deliver energy in the form of light and soft tissue lasers are used in a wide range of treatments for gum-related issues, from treating your canker sores to treating gum disease and performing biopsies.
Laser dentistry can reduce your risk of infection, shorten your healing time thanks to less damage to the gums, and result in less blood loss than traditional dental surgery, among other benefits.
Oral ID
Oral abnormalities such as cancerous and pre-cancerous lesions are challenging to identify with the naked eye. This minimally invasive device screens for oral cancer using fluorescence visualization technology to quickly detect issues.
iTero Intraoral Scanner
Have you ever dreaded holding your mouth in an awkward position while the dentist takes the images they need? That discomfort could be gone when we use an iTero intraoral digital scanner to scan your mouth. This device lets us capture three-dimensional dental images in minutes.
Using the scanner, we create accurate physical dental models for restorative dental work, such as dental veneers, crowns, implants, and Invisalign®.
Zephyr Sleep Technologies
Have you been diagnosed with Sleep Apnea? We use the MatRX by Zephyr Air to test whether you may need Oral Appliance Treatment.Technology makes dental procedures more efficient, less painful
At Health Style Dental, your comfort and safety are our #1 priority. With the help of our dental technology, we can make many dental procedures more comfortable, and help you get out the door sooner!
