Dr. Lou Shuman is the CEO of Cellerant Consulting Group, dentistry’s leading corporate incubator and accelerator; a venturer-in-residence at Harvard’s i-Lab; the chairman of the technology advisory board at WEO Media; a long-time contributor to Dental Products Report; and the founder and creator of the Cellerant Best of Class Technology Awards.

Simplifying Equipment Service, Purchase, and Compliance | Image Credit: © UptimeHealth

When important equipment breaks, the last thing you need during your busy day is to have to help an assistant look for the product information, rifle through business cards to find who fixes that particular device, schedule the technician, and then keep track of when they’re coming and whether they actually show up, and know where to file the information about the repair for next time. It’s exhausting just thinking about it.

You and your staff should not have to be equipment or inventory experts. But keeping all your devices in working order is key to providing the best care to your patients and getting your best return on investment. I spoke with CEO and cofounder of UptimeHealth, Jinesh Patel, to find out about his strategy to simplifying and predicting dental equipment service, purchase, and compliance.

How did you get the idea for UptimeHealth?

Jinesh Patel (JP):I have a master’s degree in biomedical engineering and an MBA, so I enjoy working on device design as well as equipment management and processes. Early on, I got a job as a clinical engineering manager for the largest health system in Austin, Texas. This involved taking care of the equipment inside our huge health care system, developing a strategic maintenance plan, keeping track of vendors, monitoring cost-effectiveness, and working with the departments to inform their purchase decisions. I came to understand what compliance means for the environment of care in the medical world and how a broken device impacts the day-to-day operations.

In 2013, when our health system started acquiring urgent care outpatient locations, I was tasked with evaluating their equipment management policies and compliance. When I started interviewing them, I realized they had no solutions; some could not even show me a device list or management plan for their equipment. These are items required by regulatory bodies in the medical world.

I was surprised that in most of these cases, there was no equipment expert in the building. Yet every medical procedure requires some kind of medical instrument. That was my inspiration to create UptimeHealth. I was serendipitous enough to meet cofounder Bill Olsen, a software expert who formerly was chief technology officer of Accruent, the premier equipment and asset management platform for health care systems. He saw the same problems I was seeing. At first, we were hyper-focused on the urgent care and surgical markets,but in March 2020, during the COVID-19 crisis, we started to look at other markets that could be helped by UptimeHealth and decided to serve the niche of over 120,000 dental offices in the US.

First we help dental offices manage their equipment efficiently by creating a roster of what they actually own, a comprehensive list—category, model, serial number, location in the building, who is managing the device at that building, the date of purchase, and purchase price. We make all these data points searchable. So there is, for example, a list of all the autoclaves in the office, all the chairs, everything. Based on that roster, we indicate any upkeep or maintenance that is needed for that equipment—on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual basis, and whether it’s compliance related.

A good example is testing sterilizers or clean-outs for chairs that need either to be maintained or comply with applicable laws. A task management engine flags the tasks that need to be done and then stores the maintenance record for each device in a digital binder. Also, we keep a record of your service technician so in case of an issue, you’re not searching for business cards or emails for your contact. With UptimeHealth, you can click a button and send a message to that technician telling them about your problem, along with all the pertinent information on that device, and an office contact for more information. We then track their service progress. You can look across the systems and see if the service call is scheduled, if parts are on order, and when it’s complete. Anyone in the office can log in to the product and see the status of a piece of equipment.

Lastly, we analyze data about your equipment—how often it’s failing and how much it costs to service and support those devices. We can produce depreciation reports and suggest when it may make sense to replace instead of repair equipment.

In addition to our original services, customers have requested other applications, like facilities management. We already have a concept of your space because we assigned the devices to their places in the building. So just like you open up a service ticket on a device, you can open up a service ticket on an area, such as an operatory where a ceiling tile has fallen or a plumbing issue.

 We are in the process of developing a sophisticated version of the equipment roster to store documents for your office, and in the future we are envisioning that eventually our product will communicate with the equipment, like a machine will send a message when it may be overheating, and that will create a task or a service ticket.

Articles

UptimeHealth helps dental practices manage equipment and analyze efficiency and maintenance to ensure everything runs smoothly.

Simplifying Equipment Service, Purchase, and Compliance

Laura Dorr is the former executive editor of DPR's Modern Dental Network and a regular contributing author.

Digital, Dentistry's New Normal. Image credit: © Damian Sobcyzk - stock.adobe.com

Technophobes beware: Digital dentistry is here and it isn’t going anywhere. Analog impressions used to be standard, but intraoral scanning has pushed them to the wayside. Bitewing films have been replaced by digital radiography. Electronic health records have pushed practices paperless. And while many of these developments may have seemed intimidating at one time, they’re the new normal.

While many dentists might equate the embracing of new technology with younger practitioners, digital technology is catching on even among traditionalists. The numbers prove it: The global digital dentistry market, which was $915.6 million in 2021, is expected to undergo a compound annual growth rate of 8.7% by 2029.¹

“A digital environment has really gained importance for dentists in their workplaces nowadays,” says David Baker, chief information and digital officer at Pacific Dental Services. “Over the past few years, there has been less resistance and a greater openness to what technology and digital solutions can offer dentists. Dentists are increasingly realizing the benefits that digital solutions bring, both in terms of enhancing patient care and streamlining practice operations, for a more seamless health care experience.”

From streamlined workflows to improved patient care, technology can improve dental practice operations and patient experiences and support dental operations through the entire life cycle of a patient, including patient acquisition and marketing, scheduling, digital correspondence, treatment, and billing.

“Multichannel communication and marketing automation has helped patients get timely care,” says Kameron So, senior product manager for Planet DDS. “Artificial intelligence [AI]-assisted pathology detection and decision support also enhance clinical outcomes. Technology can crucially help dental offices focus their attention on patient care.”

In addition to streamlining the patient life cycle, digital platforms increase convenience in clinical care. Digital technology eliminates waiting periods, reduces the need for repeat scans or visits, and increases patient comfort.

“Clinical technology has made a great impact,” Baker says. “Conventional restorative dentistry involved sending specimens and impressions off to remote labs and waiting for days, but now, we can create crowns right there, chairside, while the patient is in the office. This digital shift has turned dentistry around, offering not only cost savings, but also a better experience for the patient and speed of service by the clinician.”

And patients are coming to expect it. Dental patients have experienced the digital workflow with their medical doctors and expect no less from their dentists. Increasingly, patients look for conveniences like paperless appointment booking and registration and being able to pay their bills digitally or manage their own medical records.

“One of the recent technology trends we’re seeing from the consumer side is the increasing expectation for a digital experience,” So says. “It’s really a differentiator for dentists to stay current on new technologies to continue meeting patient expectations.”

But it’s not just patients who are searching for a digital experience; young dentists entering the field are as well. The generation that has grown up online—with email ousting paper, cell phones that act as computers, and digital x-rays in medical offices—expects technology in the workplace, too. Digital workflows no longer are seen as innovative but have become integral pieces of a successful dental practice. The march toward a completely digital dental experience continues, with many championing its evolution.

“At this point, I wouldn’t want to go back to a nondigital workflow,” says Marty Jablow, DMD. “Everything in my office is digital from the front desk all the way up to x-rays, radiographs, cone beam, digitizing patients when they walk in the door with an intraoral scanner, etc. We’ve been paperless for 15-plus years. It’s just the normal migration forward.”

Preparing Emerging Dentists for Digital Dentistry

This push toward digital begins, as all dentists do, in dental school. The integration of digital technology into educational programs is birthing a new generation of dentists who understand and embrace digital technology. And new programs are leading the charge.

In Joplin, Missouri, the impetus for a new dental program came not from a digital focus, but from a need for care. Jasper and Newton counties (Joplin straddles both) and most of the surrounding counties have been qualified as dental health professional shortage areas by the US Health Resources and Services Administration. In Jasper County alone, 10.8 full-time dentists are needed to meet the minimum ideal practitioner-to-population target ratio.2

“Within 150-mile radius of Joplin, all of the counties were deemed dental health professional shortage areas,” says Kathryn Champion, DMD, director of clinical operations at Kansas City University’s new College of Dental Medicine (KCU-CDM). “We actually have a shortage of over 750 dentists just within this corner of the 4-state area.”

These staggering statistics reflected an obvious need for more accessible dental care in the region. Linda Niessen, DMD, founding dean of KCU-CDM, contacted Dr Champion to talk about founding a new dental school.

“We really wanted to bring a dental school here because data have shown that when you recruit students from local populations, they are more likely to stay in those areas,” Dr Champion explains. “We wanted to bring a dental school here where there’s a great need for oral health care and then, hopefully, encourage those students to then continue practicing in these rural underserved areas.”

Dr Champion was a newer dentist herself. She graduated from the Nova Southeastern University College of Dental Medicine in 2018, and had been in private practice for 3 years when Dr Niessen reached out to her.

“Academics really wasn’t anything I had previously thought about, but the opportunity to start a school from the ground up sounded almost too good to be true,” Dr Champion says. “I saw it as an opportunity to address the shortcomings that I had in my dental education and bring new things into this program.”

Dr Champion stresses that she got a great dental education but saw gaps in the curriculum that could be improved upon. She says much of this was due to little integration of real-world scenarios into the didactic portion of the education. Because dentists spend 4 years in school and are then licensed to go out and treat patients, Dr Champion felt that preparing students for that through clinical applications in real-world scenarios they might run into was important. This included understanding the latest technologies and how treatment was executed in a dental practice.

“Digital dentistry is really growing so much and expanding every day,” she says. “While not every office you might go into when you graduate will have the complete suite of digital dentistry, it’s important for our students to know what’s coming. We want to be on the cutting edge of technology so that they can go out into practice and feel comfortable using these new digital technologies to help their patients.”

And they are introducing students to many aspects of digital dentistry. Intraoral scanning, digital impressions, and exocad are all utilized in the curriculum to expose students to an all-digital prosthesis workflow. Students start in the simulation lab but eventually get to practice intraoral scanning on real patients. But even when real patients enter the picture, there’s technology that can help.

“We have simulation technology that will allow us to scan our patient’s mouth and practice treating that patient beforehand with a virtual reality headset and tools that give haptic feedback so we can be prepared for the actual procedure,” says Stephanie Melot, RDH, a first-year dental student at KCU-CDM.

Dr Champion agrees that the haptic simulator is a great tool for patient safety and patient care, as students get to practice digitally but realistically before actually working in a patient’s mouth.

“The haptic simulator mimics what it feels like to prep into a tooth so you get the feel of what real enamel feels like or what it feels like from the transition from enamel to dentin,” Dr Champion says. “You can simulate how it feels to give oral injections and how it feels when you hit bone or anatomical landmarks. It’s a really great teaching tool.”

The program uses another digital tool to evaluate preparations. E4D Compare software helps teach students how far they’ve deviated from an ideal impression.

“If you’re prepping a crown, you have certain parameters and measurements that you want to get to for certain types of materials,” Dr Champion says. “So what the student can do is prep their Typodont tooth and then they can scan it and overlay the ideal prep on that and see how far they’ve deviated. It’s a really good tool for educational purposes so they can see how they can improve in that respect.”

Dr Champion and the KCU-CDM team felt it was critical to expose students to all aspects of digital technology, not just in educational tools. The program integrates digital x-rays and sensors, CBCT, and 3D imaging, all under 1 digital suite.

“There’s 1 program that controls all of those components,” Dr Champion explains. “It makes it a really streamlined process for the students to learn all of those touch points of digital technology and how they can utilize them at different points in patient care.”

Students also have the opportunity to work with 3D printers and onsite digital milling. Dr Champion feels that all of these digital technologies combine to not only streamline a dentist’s workflow, but also entice patients because of their convenience.

“When you graduate and you’re now treating patients, patients are looking for these digital enhancements in an office,” she explains. “And so I think students are therefore looking for schools that will give them a comprehensive education on digital technology as well.”

As digital technology improves and increases, students are looking for opportunities to embrace the latest innovations, both in dental school and beyond. Dr Champion says students are looking for dental programs that are incorporating what’s on the forefront of dentistry and looking forward not to just what’s happening now, but what’s to come as well.

“Digital technology is more of an expectation now and part of that is because digital technology comes a lot easier to the next generation of graduating dentists to begin with,” Dr Champion says. “Digital dentistry can’t take away the importance of analog skills, but the digital adaptation of a lot of those things is becoming the expectation for incoming students.”

Melot is enrolled in KCU-CDM’s inaugural class. She began working as a dental hygienist in 2011 but always wanted to pursue a career as a dentist.

“I was drawn to dentistry when I was in dental hygiene school and I realized that the skill set I was learning there would not match the need that I saw in my community,” Melot explains. “The need for quality dental treatment in the underserved community where I lived would only partly be met by what I could do as a dental hygienist, and I wanted to be able to fully meet those needs.”

This brought Melot to KCU-CDM, where she is learning the latest technology, and being immersed in the digital workflow has fanned her enthusiasm for other emerging technologies.

“The dental technology that excites me is the research of stem cells for dental tissue regeneration and the use of intraoral scanners used in conjunction with CEREC [Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramic] technology and 3D printing,” she says. “These technologies optimize what dentists are capable of in the office.”

To truly accomplish this optimization, Melot says a digital work environment is a must. “I’ve worked in an office that was more analog, and the patient care was diminished by a lack of resources,” she says. When it comes time to graduate and enter the workforce, Melot will look for a more technology-minded practice.

“I will look for a practice that serves the underserved in the community, but beyond that, I want the practice to be open to new technology that will create a better patient experience,” she says. “Some of the newer technology like 3D scanners, CBCT, intraoral scanners, and high-quality software management are quickly becoming the standard of care in the dental office. Therefore, those are important features to look for.”

With so many young dentists accustomed to working with digital tools—and interested in continuing to do so—existing practices need to stay abreast of new technology if they want to attract associates or sell their practice. Practices that aren’t embracing digital workflows may not be as appealing to younger dentists who want a modern experience that they feel will better help them succeed.

“If you’re coming out of school and you’ve had exposure to this digital technology, it’s hard to adjust to not having the capabilities and the accessibility that you had in school,” Dr Champion says. “The dentists who aren’t incorporating new technology into their practices are maybe seen as a little more antiquated and maybe not as successful. Students want to come out into a practice that has the best success potential for them and that is incorporating digital dentistry within the practice.”

Dr Jablow agrees and says he sees the same trends in practice sales.

“If you’re running on the analog side of the bell curve in terms of technology acquisitions and implementation in your office, you’re going to have a little bit more difficulty if you want to sell your office,” he says. “People would like more up-to-date things, especially younger dentists who are coming in and thinking, how much money do we have to pump into this venture to bring it up to the standards of the 2020s?”

The draw of technology has dovetailed with the rise of dental service organizations (DSOs) and group practices. Cost can be a significant barrier for smaller practices, but larger organizations have more money to invest in cutting-edge technology. This makes technology-forward groups and DSOs appealing to young dentists because they will be able to practice more advanced (and often subsequently more profitable) dentistry right from the beginning of their careers.

“[With a DSO], there won’t be a need to spend time developing, researching, and implementing these technologies over extended periods,” Baker says. “Instead, they’re readily available as soon as you begin. This enhances the quality of care and your potential for success.”

With staffing and staff retention issues continuing to be a critical concern in the dental industry, providing digital tools that automate tasks, streamline workflows, and allow staff to work more efficiently can be an effective strategy in attracting (and keeping) staff.

“If technology can allow staff to work more efficiently and automate tasks that aren’t as valuable for creating outcomes for the practice or patient, it certainly would make that practice or DSO more attractive to staff,” So says. “Implementing technology that allows staff and associates to focus on higher-value tasks can increase job satisfaction and staff retention. Being technology-oriented can also help attract younger dentists and staff who tend to be earlier adopters of new innovations.”

As technology advances and continues to shift to the norm, dentists need to ensure they understand the latest trends and embrace the technologies that can at least keep them even with the rest of the pack. Baker believes dentists should actively look for digital tools to stay competitive and provide high-quality care. Digital environments, he says, empower practices to manage patient data efficiently, elevate diagnostic capabilities through advanced imaging, and offer better patient care.

“What’s more, these digital solutions resonate with tech-savvy patients, making the adoption of such technologies not just an attractive option but a necessary step to meet the ever-changing health care standards a patient should expect,” Baker says. “I believe that it is important for dentists to understand the shifting market landscape, as there’s an impressive amount of progress taking place. But in my view, as a DSO, it’s our responsibility to stay ahead of the latest technology trends and ensure that they reach a ‘proven’ state where benefits are well-established.”

When it comes to those well-established technology trends, there are several that all practices should embrace—but some that may not be necessary for everyone. Sifting through the glitz and marketing flair of emerging technologies can be critical to ensuring dentists are getting the best return on their investments.

“The first thing when adding any digital technology is to assess what it is going to do for your practice,” Dr Jablow says. “How’s it going to be helpful? Is there a return on my investment? That’s just an intellectual discussion to have with yourself.”

Intraoral scanning and digital impressions have become a staple in many practices and intraoral scanners are a tool that most young dentists will expect to find in a practice’s workflow. Champion thinks this technology is probably one of the biggest digital innovations that dentists need to have, while Baker also cites the importance of other clinical technology.

“Equally important are precision-enhancing technologies that elevate patient care, including advanced imaging solutions and comprehensive patient health records that highlight a truly integrated longitudinal medical and dental history,” he says. “Also, the evolution of 3D printing and chairside labs has transformed our approach to restorative dentistry, offering patients the convenience of same-day procedures.”

Outside the operatory, digital workflow technology is another imperative adoption. Tools that streamline time-consuming or cumbersome administrative tasks (such as automated scheduling and billing) can increase practice efficiency dramatically, lowering workloads and allowing more time for patient care. Combined with clinical technology, a digital administrative workflow can optimize care.

“In essence, the combination of proven technologies across administrative and clinical domains ensures that dental practices can provide the highest level of care while remaining efficient and patient focused.”

Taking things to the cloud is another technological solution that can keep things running smoothly. With everyone accustomed to Google Docs and programs accessible from multiple devices, going cloud-based makes sense for many practices.

“A cloud-based practice management solution would be the most important because it truly is the central operating system and source of truth where you keep all patient data, and it covers the entire life cycle of the patient experience,” So says. “Our cloud-native applications are designed to take advantage of cloud computing principles and services to be highly scalable, resilient, and flexible in support of practice growth.”

So shares that Planet DDS offers numerous options for practices looking to leave a centralized system. Planet DDS couples its cloud-based practice management solution Denticon (along with Denticon Practice Analytics, Denticon Pay, and Denticon Practice Engagement) with cloud-based imaging (Apteryx XVWeb), and Cloud 9, an orthodontic practice management solution. Integrating several of these applications will provide practices with 1 easy, streamlined digital workflow, So says.

Baker also believes a digital workflow is key to success. Pacific Dental Services is committed to leveraging proven technology, which is reflected in the range of tools it offers its clinicians. This includes CEREC computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing for same-day dental restorations, AI-powered software, state-of-the-art practice management systems, and salivary diagnostics—keeping clinicians on the cutting edge.

“Our clinicians have access to the latest advancements that enhance accuracy and efficiency in patient care,” Baker says. “These technologies not only streamline daily tasks but also enable precise diagnostics and treatment planning, ultimately contributing to improved patient outcomes. In essence, Pacific Dental Services is dedicated to providing clinicians with a technological and digital edge that empowers them to consistently deliver the highest standard of care.”

While DSOs may be leading the way in digital technology, small practices shouldn’t be deterred by daunting upfront costs or technology adoption anxiety; Dr Jablow says the return on investment is definitely worth it.

“Digital technology and the digital workflow are here, but don’t be afraid of it,” Dr Jablow says. “Don’t be afraid of the cost to acquire it because it’s going to pay itself back easily. The ROI is there; you just have to spend the time and the effort to train in it so that you can get the maximum value out of it.”

Digital is undeniably dental’s new normal, and there’s only more growth on the horizon. The industry is at a tipping point, Baker says, where technology and dentistry are coming together, giving dentists the opportunity to leverage it for more efficient and effective workflows. Dental students accustomed to digital technology such as intraoral scanners, AI, or 3D imaging are now looking farther afield for what comes next and how it can be applied in dentistry, However, this application is dependent on the industry’s willingness to adopt it.

Melot thinks there already are tried-and-true methods that dentistry just needs to embrace.

“I’d be interested to know what innovations or technology the medical field has that could be used for dental treatments,” she says. “Practicing with new technology is the best way to become proficient. Less tech-savvy clinicians could consider new technology from a growth mindset perspective, which would allow them to learn a new skill set while being kind to themselves as they struggle learning something that is unfamiliar to them.”

As practitioners learn new skills and new ways to utilize technology in their practices, advancements will continue to develop. AI and machine learning will integrate into different aspects of dentistry and provide more support in identifying pathologies and even chairside education, while automation processes will speed up workflows. The innovations will continue to unfold at a rapid clip and staying up-to-date will be paramount to success.

Jablow recommends that dentists use the resources available to them and seek out information on technologies from the internet, key opinion leaders, and continuing education seminars.

“When I graduated, you could only get this information from a bunch of magazines that came out every month,” he says. “Now the information is available in almost real time. Google searches, Facebook groups, or even asking your friends and neighbors who are dentists can get you the information you need. Plus, key opinion leaders are now easily accessible online. So take advantage of where you can and get the information that you think you need to be able to move your practice in the direction that you want it to in terms of technology.”

As far as the direction a dentist takes technology, it’s up to each individual practice to decide what works best for them, their workflows, their treatment plans, and their patients.

“I tell my students to use technology judiciously,” Dr Champion says. “Make sure that you understand how technology can enhance your practice and how it can make you more efficient. But don’t rely on digital technology solely; you still have to understand foundations of patient care. Be selective in your digital capabilities and invest in continuing education so you can understand what’s on the forefront of dentistry, and then incorporate into your own practice what makes the most sense for you and the care that you do.”

However the technology is incorporated, it’s an exciting time to be a dentist.

“Manual tasks that once consumed time are progressively transitioning into automated processes, bringing unprecedented speed and agility,” Baker says. “The continual growth of chairside point-of-care capabilities are driving exponential advancements year after year at pace not seen before. It’s a fantastic time to be a digital pioneer in dental.”

Global digital dentistry market – industry trends and forecast to 2029. Data Bridge Market Research. June 2022. Accessed August 23, 2023. https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-digital-dentistry-market

US Health Resources & Services Administration. HPSA Find. Accessed August 23, 2023. https://data.hrsa.gov/tools/shortage-area/hpsa-find

Digital dentistry is the future of dentistry, making it vital that clinicians familiarize and grow comfortable with all the digital dental technologies at their disposal

Digital, Dentistry’s New Normal 

John Flucke, DDS, is in private practice in Lee’s Summit, Mo. He also serves as chief clinical editor and technology editor for 

® and keeps an active blog filled with thoughts and tidbits on the world of technology at blog.denticle.com.

How Do We Help Those Who Came Before Us? Image credit: © NewSaetiw - stock.adobe.com

My father’s health began to fail in 2017. However, the miracle that is our modern medical system managed to keep him alive for over 5 more years. As he deteriorated, I was forced to take an up-close and personal tour of what many of us may experience as we age.

At first it was assisted living, which is exactly what it sounds like. My dad was still mobile but needed some help with tasks like laundry, cleaning his little apartment, getting to the dining room, and things like that. Overall he just wasn’t as strong or as mobile as he once was. However, he fell and broke a couple of vertebrae. He was much less mobile and needed much more help. He then entered skilled nursing.

Skilled nursing is what I think most of us think of when we hear the term nursing home. It is basically 1 step above a hospital. I consider my father to be lucky. His mobility decreased, but he was still pretty sharp and pretty physically capable. Others in the facility were not so lucky.

I had to pass the nurses’ station on my way to my dad’s room and there were always about 10 residents arranged around the station in reclining wheelchairs. This group of patients stared off into space and many of them barely moved. The staff would get them out of bed, bathe them, dress them, and then bring them down to the nurses’ station so someone could always watch them and take care of them if they needed assistance.

There were many others who were mobile enough to walk and stroll around the facility, but many of them had greatly decreased mental capacity so they would walk, but they really couldn’t communicate. All exits were alarmed so that they couldn’t leave and get lost or injured.

During the COVID-19 nightmare, families weren’t allowed in the facility for months. I certainly understood the reasoning, but I wondered what those poor people with diminished mental capacity thought of never seeing loved ones and not understanding why.

After the COVID-19 lockdown, one day I was signing in at the front desk and I saw a clipboard with the word 

 at the top. I asked the young lady at the desk about it and was told it was the sign-up sheet. A mobile dental unit stopped by from time to time and if a resident wanted to be seen they could sign up.

That was a moment of stunned reality for me. I thought back to a former patient. This patient was about my age and began coming to see me after she moved to Kansas City, Missouri, to take care of her mom. I’ll call her Mrs P. Daughter P would always bring Mrs P with her and they would get their care at the same time. Mrs P was an amazingly sweet and lovable lady. She was always kind, always smiling, and always called her hygienist “Honey.”

One day Daughter P stopped by the office and asked to see me. Mrs P had been diagnosed with early Alzheimer disease and Daughter P wanted to know if I would still see her. She was relieved that I would.

Over the next few years the team and I watched Mrs P as her mental capacity declined rapidly. The last 2 years or so, whenever one of the hygienists would see her, she would swear at them. She would eventually be talked into having her teeth cleaned but she was often belligerent and sometimes threatened to punch one of the hygienists. My team chose to see her and take care of her. They knew it wasn’t the real Mrs P. The disease had changed her. One day as Daughter and Mrs P were leaving the office, Daughter P looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, “Dr Flucke, our medical profession is so good that people are living longer than they should.” Then she hugged me and sobbed.

Mrs P died shortly after that visit and when she did, her daughter moved away. On her last visit she thanked the entire team for all they had done for her and her mom.

I often thought about Daughter and Mrs P as I spent time with my dad in the skilled nursing facility. I kept seeing the problem. However, I’m still struggling with the solution.

After COVID-19, skilled nursing suffered a staffing shortage. When you have a limited pool of employees, they can accomplish only a limited number of tasks. Oral health needs to be emphasized and taught as part of the training of those involved with care of older adults.

However, with limited staffing options I understand the problem. If you are responsible for 6 patients on your shift, you have to prioritize each patient’s needs. If you have the choice of brushing a patient’s teeth or changing a patient with soiled undergarments, I know which one takes priority. What we in dentistry need to do is to help figure out a solution to help eliminate those types of decisions.

There is no up without a down and along that line of thinking, I feel that one of the upsides to the COVID-19 crisis was the development of teledentistry.

I have been impressed with the app that connects my Philips Sonicare 9900 Prestige toothbrush to my iPhone. Perhaps there is something along those lines that tracks a patient’s brushing and then shares that data so it can be monitored. I’m thinking of having it connect to Wi-Fi and send the data to the nurses and to a dentist who visits the facility. Powered brushes have a diameter better suited to older hands with limited flexibility and the bristles just have to contact the tooth to provide cleaning since the “power” part of the brush does the work. For patients who are still able to provide their own care, this would be a great way to monitor their hygiene. The data could even be shared with family. If you know your mom hasn’t brushed her teeth in 48 hours you could call or stop by (if you live nearby) and find out what the problem is.

For patients who have limited mental and or physical capacity, we need more dental professionals who can visit these nursing centers and provide screening and/or care. I believe screening is the absolute minimum that we should be looking at in this scenario.

It would be great if we could have hygienists who could visit these centers. TeleDent from MouthWatch provides a system that can allow a hygienist to screen patients, take images, and record data that can be uploaded at the end of the day. A dentist can remotely review this information and then recommend treatment or travel to provide that treatment.

I realize this problem cannot be solved overnight. However, we owe a solution to those who came before us. The 2 biggest problems to overcome are staffing and money. The educational system needs to train more hygienists. To meet the needs of our older population we need to have full staffing in offices and enough trained professionals to also go into elder facilities. We also need more trained staff for these nursing facilities.

The second piece of this is where does the money come from? That is not something I have the answer to. The costs are not just for the staff. The hardware that allows data gathering also needs to be factored in. The good news is that initially the program could get off the ground with a few hand instruments, laptops, intraoral cameras, portable x-ray generators, and x-ray sensors.

What I’m discussing here isn’t a potential scenario. The problem exists. I have seen it. Every generation faces problems they must confront. We are living longer than ever before and we are the first generation that is really having to deal with the concerns of advanced age on a huge scale. This problem is here and it is only going to become bigger.

I often think about Daughter P and her thoughts about us living longer than we should. Our care needs to catch up to our life span. Right now our life span exceeds the care.

I want to close out this month’s column with a story about one of my dad’s caregivers. He was a young man, probably late 20s, maybe 30 at the most. I’m not sure where he grew up, but he was not native to the United States. He took really great care of my dad. He was always happy, always smiling, always upbeat to all of his patients. Dealing with older people can be trying and I saw some of the residents he treated being difficult, but he would always smile and joke with them, no matter what the situation.

I wanted him to know how much I valued and appreciated what he did for my dad. In the last couple of years my dad could be grumpy. In a quiet moment, I pulled him aside and told him how much I appreciated all he did.

“I want you to know how grateful I am for what you do,” I said. “Thank you for taking such good care of my dad.”

He looked at me and he positively glowed. He smiled widely and said, “It is my honor to take care of him.”

A more appropriate thing could not have been said. We owe quality of life to those who have come before us, and we should be honored to do so

Older generations deserve quality, dignified dental care. How can we ensure that they receive it? 

How Do We Help Those Who Came Before Us?

Kellie Nock is the assistant editor for Dental Products Report. She graduated from Kent State University in 2018 with a Bachelor's in Journalism. Kellie enjoys multimedia content creation with a focus on audio and video storytelling. 

Celebrating a Toothlike Composite With 10 Years of Performance. Image credit: © VOCO America Inc

When doing restorative work, it is vital that the composite the dentist is using performs well, handles well, and matches the surrounding dentition for esthetically pleasing results. Meeting all these needs may seem like a difficult task, but 1 composite stands out above the rest, having tackled this challenge with ease for more than a decade.

GrandioSO is a universal, light-cured, 89%-filled nano-hybrid composite. Indicated for both posterior and anterior fillings, this composite from VOCO touts a variety of features that clinicians including Lauren Rainey, DDS, find particularly appealing for her restorations. Dr Rainey currently practices in the Seattle, Washington, area, but her experience with GrandioSO began in 2016 after she purchased a dental practice in Berkeley, California which already had the high-performing composite in its armamentarium.

“Shortly after I bought the practice, I had a very established assistant who had worked for about 20 years of her career and was trained by a well-known prosthodontist in downtown San Francisco. When she joined the team, she told me that GrandioSO is a product I definitely needed to keep using as she had seen a lot of impressive results with patients,” Dr Rainey says. “I was seeing the results in the patient population that I was treating, too, when they would come back for recall. I could see not only clinically but radiographically that these restorations were really solid, and that they continued to perform well between 2016 and 2023 under my care.”

Part of what makes GrandioSO such a long-lasting, go-to product is its formulation. Its 89% fillers by weight provide great wear resistance as well as good color stability. This also means a low resin rate that equates to 30% to 50% less resin than classic hybrid and pseudo-nano composites, leading to better results over time.

Also, key to GrandioSO’s decade of success has also been its flexural strength that allows the composite to adapt to regular dental stress as well as its thermocycling coefficient, which ensures that the composite’s reaction to temperature changes is similar to that of the natural tooth structure. These features are key for longevity, maintaining the strength necessary to endure regular stress.

GrandioSO is designed to mimic the physical properties of natural tooth structure, such as surface hardness, flexural and compressive strength, as well as esthetic, thermal, and elastic behaviors. This allows the material to react as a restoration in the same manner as the surrounding tooth structure, especially at the margin, reducing the risk of micro-leakage and failure, and resulting in better long-term performance. GrandioSO is said to offer user-friendliness with nonstick handling and easy polishability. GrandioSO delivers a high filler content of 89% by weight, resulting in a low resin percentage, which helps reduce the negative aspects associated with composite restoratives, including polymerization shrinkage, staining, and wear. These features combine to make GrandioSO the most toothlike composite on the market, according to VOCO.

GrandioSO’s 17 shades tout opacity and translucency that enable it to blend in and match the surrounding dentition, making it an esthetic choice for any class restoration, according to Dr Rainey, who serves a wide variety of patient populations. Having a composite that is best able to mimic the natural shade and structure of the tooth is key.

“One of the great things about GrandioSO is that it does come in a wide variety of shades, including one suitable for that class V area or for some of the older teeth that have had many restorations and a lot of older amalgam staining in them.” Dr Rainey says. “Also, the polish retention is impressive and consistent, and that’s something that I saw firsthand with those first patients I started treating in California and then continued to see it at recall appointments years later. That’s something that I can pick up on and also the hygiene team notices it too.”

In addition to its polish retention, Dr Rainey says other features make GrandioSO her go-to as well, including its ease of use and handling. These qualities combine to make GrandioSO a high-performing, toothlike composite that Dr Rainey will use for years to come.

“One of the best things about GrandioSO is that it does have that long-term polishability and that it maintains itself,” she says.

Dr Rainey would gladly recommend GrandioSO to any peers doing restorative dentistry, especially for those who may be doing a lot of restorations in class V areas. GrandioSO is indicated for all classes of restorations, which makes it well-suited to add maximum value in the dental practice.

“I find that its texture and the creaminess of the product itself work best in my hands even when working with that unusual class V area,” Dr Rainey says. “It also has a polishability and polish retention that make for happy gingival tissue down the line. It achieves a nice, long-term soft tissue response that is a key goal when you’re placing restorations in those hard-to-reach areas.”

VOCO’s GrandioSO line of composites works to ensure a toothlike restoration using a tried-and-true formula that guarantees strength, longevity, and esthetically pleasing results. 

Celebrating a Toothlike Composite With 10 Years of Performance

Robert Elsenpeter is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to Dental Products Report and Dental Lab Products. He is also the author of 18 technology books, including the award-winning Green IT: Reduce Your Information System's Environmental Impact While Adding to the Bottom Line. As such, he’s particularly interested in the technological side of dentistry.

, Ebeneezer Scrooge is visited by 3 ghosts: the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come (technically, he’s visited by 4 ghosts, but Jacob Marley is irrelevant to this discussion).

Dental implantation—and the resulting patient care—can mirror the classic story: Learning lessons from the past can help improve future patient outcomes.

One of the most common implant problems, observes Catapult Education founder Lou Graham, DDS, is peri-mucositis.

“Peri-mucositis is inflammation in the tissue—without bone loss—around an implant,” he says. “The first identifiable problem would be bleeding on probing, bleeding on brushing around an implant. So if you know it’s a common problem, how do you avoid it? One solution to solve this issue is to place an implant with at least a minimum of 2 mm of keratinized tissue. So if a patient comes back to you and they have bleeding on probing and they do not have attached tissue, one of the immediate solutions is to have a tissue graft placed such that we can minimize the cause of lack of keratinized tissue.”

All too often, peri-mucositis can lead to peri-implantitis.

“Plaque accumulation happens faster around an implant,” Dr Graham continues. “And because it can happen faster, without proper keratinized tissue, further problems such as those described occur down the line. So in essence, they should be thinking about this before. Peri-mucositis can occur immediately, whereas peri-implantitis often becomes evident later on.”

As one might suspect, implants can be affected by other issues in the oral cavity.

“The literature for decades has shown that if other areas of the mouth have periodontal disease, then those bacteria can contribute to periodontal issues involving implants, again bringing us back to peri-mucositis as a precursor to peri-implantitis,” Dr Graham says. “Imagine you have an implant placed in the No. 19 area and you have periodontal disease in other quadrants of the mouth. That implant has a much higher chance of periodontal issues. So I think what dentists routinely do is only focus on the implant and not the overall condition of the mouth. My recommendation: Focus on the entire dentition.”

The first ghost took Scrooge back to his youth, a time when he had optimistic aspirations. That is also the case for implants. Patients and dentists have a vision for how dental implants can improve a patient’s life. Regrettably, sometimes that vision does not come into focus, especially as complications arise.

On the clinicians’ end, there are several factors that can come back to haunt a case.

“There are many, many factors that determine ‘successful’ implant placement,” Sam Shamardi, DMD, observes. Dr Shamardi is an American Board of Periodontology and Implant Surgery diplomate, faculty member at Harvard’s School of Dental Medicine Division of Periodontology, a member of Catapult Education’s speakers bureau, and the author of 

The Financial Survival Guide for Dentists

“It would be incorrect to assume 1 or 2 primary factors are all that it takes, as each case and patient situation is truly unique,” he notes. “That being said, some of the main factors for improper placement include poor initial planning, poor angulation, insufficient bone height/width, incorrect implant size/length choice, excessive heating of drills and/or using dull drills, improper site preparation, not taking radiographs during placement to confirm proper positioning and angulation, poor visibility due to poor flap management.”

The implant itself isn’t the only component that can lead to a less-than-ideal restoration. The appliance attached to it is also a factor.

“We’re talking so much about the implant itself, but there’s also the restorative component,” says Richard Lipscomb, DDS, a general dentist in Mitchellville, Maryland, and a member of Catapult’s speakers bureau. “How does the crown look or how does the bridge look? Is it in the right position? Does it look like it’s in the right position and is it functioning for the patient? Both of those things are important when it comes to an implant, as opposed to a regular crown and bridge. Because of the money and the time involved, patients’ expectations of it being a certain way are higher than anything else.”

The implant’s location can have an impact on whether the placement is negatively perceived.

“In the posterior,” Dr Lipscomb says, “the look of the restoration does not have to be perfect. In this area, we’re dealing with a larger missing tooth or missing teeth, and it’s more about function. In the anterior, it needs to be more Hollywood, because that’s what patients’ expectations are. When you’re dealing with teeth in the esthetic zone, you’re also dealing with implant placement with specific angulation requirements.”

Happily, we don’t have to wait for the future for things to improve for clinicians.

“Technology and software have come a long way, to the point of having the option for guided surgery and surgical stents that can significantly direct clinicians to place more accurately and with fewer risks,” Dr Shamardi says. “However, even then there is a chance for error—or even for poor guide fabrication—which doesn’t match up with the clinical situation. Thus, the dentist has far more chances of doing things ‘better’ now than before, but you still need a good grasp of fundamentals regardless of what experience level and technology.”

Nascent technologies and treatments improve over time and dental implants are no different.

“The hardware has gotten better and implant surfaces are far more streamlined now,” Dr Shamardi says. “However, knockoffs still exist that can be problematic. Original blade implants were a disaster and not predictable; on the flip side, the sheer number of implants placed today combined with the higher number of inexperienced clinicians placing them has created a situation where complications have also risen significantly and some studies quote 20% to 25% peri-implantitis after 2 years so despite better technology, we are struggling with more complications. Stricter standards on who can place implants would help; dentistry is an open border and there are no real guidelines or enforced rules to prevent clinicians with no surgical experience from placing however many they want.”

Dr Lipscomb observes that implants, historically, tend to be largely successful, but most problems tend to stem from overloading implants—too much load or too soon of a load.

“Implants have a high success rate,” Dr Lipscomb says. “And it’s up to the restorative doctor to manage the load placed on implants. Are we waiting 3, 4, or 6 months, a year? Are we putting on a single crown? Are we loading it up with a full-arch, fixed restoration? All those things play a part in terms of, did this implant fail because of poor placement or just overloading it? In most implant cases that fail, it’s the overloading and not so much poor placement.”

Implant restorations are improving, Dr Graham observes, because the 3 components comprising a restoration are in better harmony with each other.

“The machining of implants has gotten better, meaning the fit of the abutment, the crown and the abutment, the abutment to the implant. The machining has gotten better over decades,” he says. “There’s no question about it. So that fit is important because it minimizes bacteria. They continue to come up with different surfaces for faster integration.”

One of the best advances for dental implantation is improved imaging. Thanks to 3D imaging technology, there’s less guesswork in placement planning.

“Imaging is a big boost,” Dr Shamardi says. “Having 3D technology changes the planning and execution phase and has given rise to guided surgery and stent fabrication. Standard-of-care arguments are trickier, however. Cone beams are an expensive investment that not every office is able to invest in, and many patients still fear radiation even though CBCT [cone beam computed tomography] tech is very safe and shouldn’t be a major concern. Also, there are cases that are ‘easier’ and may not require all the extra bells and whistles, so saying it has to be used for every single case is a tougher case to make. Nevertheless, the information gathered from CT scans is invaluable and makes a noticeable improvement in overall outcomes.”

“Twenty-five years ago, we were using Panorex and radio-opaque markers to estimate bone levels and where to place an implant,” Dr Graham says. “Today, with CBCT technology, we can create ideal surgical stents for proper placement with the idea that placement is restoratively driven. In our practice, our implants are placed accordingly with surgical guides. We then know the restorative end point has already been treatment-planned into the placement, vs years ago when they were just placing implants in bone and then the dentist would have to restore it. As a result, we have far better angulation, far better placements today than we did 25 years ago. I know, many doctors feel that there are many times that guides may not be necessary, but as a restorative dentist, I can absolutely say, ideal placement is not easy without a guide.”

How Patients Live With Poorly Placed Implants

“One of the most common problems that can occur in as little as a few months is open contacts,” Dr Graham says. “Per Tarnow’s studies and others, open contacts can develop in up to 60% of implant casework. We have all seen them become bigger problems for our patients. We all have heard our patients comment about food impaction around an implant, and this often leads to gingival inflammation and/or adjacent tooth decay on the neighboring teeth. One of the solutions is to fabricate patients a retainer when you deliver your implant to minimize tooth movement. Another solution during hygiene visits is to utilize a product called Hybenx around inflamed tissue, around implants and natural teeth. We reviewed this product with our Catapult evaluators and this is a must-have in all of our practices as part of our treatment.”

Sometimes problems can be mitigated by replacing or adjusting the crown or bridge attached to the implant.

“Materials have gotten better over the years,” Dr Lipscomb says. “So now we can use a different material that could be stronger, better, and compensate for the issue with the lack of contact and trying to solve that problem.”

But in the grand scheme of things, it isn’t just the replacement where problems can arise. Patients must do their part, and it’s a good reminder for them to keep up on their at-home care.

“Patients live with horrific periodontal disease and decay far more and far longer than they do with poorly placed implants,” Dr Shamardi observes. “Management wise, there are considerably more options today than before. Too much attention is placed on the procedure itself and not on the management, which is really what makes or breaks the case over the long run. Once an infection establishes itself, it becomes a salmon-swimming-upstream situation and treatment and predictability are far less than they are with maintaining natural teeth, to the point some literature has mentioned reconsidering removing so many teeth in place of implants. That being said, we have numerous options from in-office air polishers and various biofilm-attacking gels and powders to at-home custom peroxide trays via Perio Protect, water flossers, implant-specific flosses, and mechanical brush heads. Thus, we have far more options and the key to success is managing the biofilm and doing whatever possible to prevent and/or minimize complications.”

Scrooge knew if he didn’t change his ways, bad things would happen. Happily, dentists tend to be more proactive than Ebenezer Scrooge was. Implant dentists are always on the lookout for ways to improve their care.

“The biggest difference with the implants that I do, which are small-diameter implants as opposed to traditional implants, is the size,” Dr Lipscomb says. “And when a small-diameter implant fails, we remove the implant, let everything kind of heal back in the soft tissue, in the bone. And then now we’re back to square one. Because they’re small, the space isn’t very big in the bone. It’s basically like taking out a tooth where with most teeth—medium size to small—we can just take out the teeth, then everything heals up and then we go from there in terms of what are we going to place. We’re going to place a regular bridge or we’re going to place an implant.

“But when you’re dealing with the traditional implant, which is bigger, it’s not a simple thing,” he continues. “I’ve got to take out the implant, then I’m going to have to do a bone graft to replace that space. So it’s never going to be a situation where I’m taking out an implant and then I’m just going to let it heal. It’s more involved because of the types of bone-grafting materials that we have now. I don’t feel that the specialists or surgeons or the periodontists shy away from that area because of a failing implant, meaning they’ll take the implant out, clean out that area, do a bone graft, and now we’re back to a new slate that can be ready for another implant. They’re of that mind-set. Now with that, the issue comes down to, OK, now that we have this new slate, what are we going to do?

“Are we going to change the angulation and are we going to change the type of restoration that’s going to go on top of this implant?” he continues. “Because we know that this was done in the past and it failed. So that’s something different moving forward. And that is going to either be a combination of changing the angulation, changing maybe the size of the implant, and then also changing the restorative options that were used so that it’s not going to be the same as the failed situation.”

If an implant case must be replaced, like so many other dental treatments, a number of factors go into its rectification, but the sooner treatment occurs, the better.

“Implant replacement rate of difficulty varies, again, case by case and depends on the situation, and the reason for the failure itself, along with how soon the problem is identified and treated,” Dr Shamardi says. “Earlier-stage intervention vs later makes a difference, and the source of failure [bacterial vs mechanical/occlusion vs implant fracture] also make a difference in terms of how the removal process will go. Implants that are heavily infected and mobile are easy to remove; those that still have anchorage may require further bone removal. All cases do require regrafting and reestablishment of bone support and some cases will require soft tissue as well; however, once fully treated and with proper healing time the sites can be reentered for a new implant. But there still have to be other considerations such as esthetics, for example, to take into consideration or possibly requiring sinus work. Thus, replacement can become a bigger ordeal depending on the case and, again, varies among many factors.”

“I would tell you that defining success of an implant is a variable,” Dr Graham says. “What is success of an implant? Is the success of an implant zero bone loss? Zero bleeding on probing? Total tissue health and no bone loss? And I would say that’s a successful implant. And then you get into, at what point is an implant a total failure? And a total failure, without question, is when an implant is loose. That is absolute, total failure and it must be removed. And the gray zone is how much bone loss has occurred before an implant really needs to be removed and replaced.”

Ultimately, Dr Graham observes that success comes down to 3 things.

“There must be enough bone, along with ideal connective tissue, and finally proper function,” he says. “All 3 must work for long-term success. In regard to a failing implant, one has to evaluate all 3 of the above factors and determine if the implant is salvageable or not. I feel one has to work closely with their specialist in such discussions [unless the general practitioner is trained in all phases of treating this themselves]. If removal is required, routinely, you’re dealing with an ongoing infection, and with such you’re not going to immediately place an implant back into an infected area. Once again, this may involve a potential temporary restorative solution and this is why you must work closely with your surgeon [unless you are performing both the surgical and restorative procedures].

“Ideally, implants would be optimally placed to begin with,” he continues. “But it doesn’t end there. Both patients and clinicians must maintain the implants for the long term. This is a team effort, both via the hygienist and the patient’s home care protocols. Again, knowing that implants have inherent risks necessitates great communication and planning with the entire dental team. Let’s take a common situation where a patient has areas of localized ongoing issues of bleeding on probing and has gone through periodontal hygiene procedures and potentially surgical and nonsurgical approaches, and yet they still have isolated areas of bleeding on probing and probings beyond 3 mm. We all have these patients in our practice, and the question is How best do we prevent further periodontal issues and, equally important, preserve the tissues around the implant/implants? One solution I have used for 8 years is a system called Perio Protect, and this is a system/product that both dentists and hygienists should be educated on. Perio Protect is a system based on [a Food and Drug Administration]–approved custom, lab-fabricated tray with a gasket-type seal. This seal is the key as it keeps a hydrogen peroxide gel in direct contact with the gingival pockets. By wearing these trays 10 to 15 minutes a day, you have a true oxygenation occurring within the pocket and those anaerobic biofilms are placed now in a far more defensive mode. Add sonic brushing and sonic flossing [Slate will redefine flossing] and you have now a far more preventive approach for your implant patients. One additional hygiene product to consider would be the water flosser, but we only recommend the plaque seeker tip. If you aren’t aware of this tip, Google it…it’s the only tip we recommend with the water flosser.”

Scrooge was haunted by the ghosts that visited him that Christmas Eve, each teaching a valuable lesson, leading to his ultimate redemption. Dentists heeding the lessons learned from poorly placed implants can help patients avoid their own nightmares.

Learning from poor past implant placements can help improve future outcomes. 

Ghost of Implants Past

Almost nothing is more essential than water in a dental practice, and ensuring your patients receive the cleanest, highest-quality water can make all the difference in your treatment. Consider water as an instrument in the dental practice. It must be maintained and regularly monitored. Managing water in the operatory can be particularly challenging when there are many pieces and parts to consider in keeping the water flowing smoothly and cleanly. Thankfully, Solmetex offers a full, end-to-end solution, enabling clean, safe water flow throughout the practice, in a way that makes it as easy as possible to manage.

Per Scott Snyder, chief marketing officer at Solmetex, an average dental practice uses around 57,000 gallons of water each year. With that in mind, it’s pertinent to ensure the water used for daily operations is not only clean, but also runs efficiently.

“That’s a lot of water,” Snyder says. “It’s flowing through all kinds of high precision equipment, and we tend to take water quality for granted.”

Municipal water quality has been declining for years in many areas, due to aging infrastructure as well as depleted aquifers reaching “the bottom of the barrel.” Even with good source water, or using distilled water, water quality and safety are challenging to achieve and maintain. Per Snyder, around 31% of all water tests in dental practices fail, despite best efforts by the dental team to treat and maintain.

“It’s really hard for dental offices to control water quality and water safety. There are 1000s of steps required over the course of a year for even just a 4-chair practice,” Snyder says. “That’s where Solmetex and Sterisil have tried to find a better solution––to make it easier with fewer steps.”

Solmetex has a variety of offerings that bring value to the dental practice while providing valuable waterline safety features for patients and practitioners.

Sterisil uses safe, environmentally conscious silver ion technology to remove bacteria from the dental unit water. Sterisil can bring the practice’s bacteria count down to 10 colony forming units (CFU), compared to other straw products rated at 200 CFU, and the Environmental Protection Agency minimum standard of 500 CFU. Per Snyder, this patented technology gets the practice’s water to where it needs to be. “This 20 times greater efficacy in controlling bacteria gives practices an added ‘safety margin’ for keeping bacteria at bay, and within the safe zone over time,” Snyder says. “It’s also less prone to human error, which is one way that bacteria enter the system. It’s just simpler and easier for the staff to maintain, because one straw lasts 365 days and doesn’t require daily maintenance like iodine straws, or tablets. This can mean literally hundreds of fewer steps required per year, per operatory.”

 Solmetex offers modern isolation technology through DryShield, a device that keeps treatment sites dry and clean. It works in 4 different ways—as a high-suction evacuator, a bite blocker, a tongue shield, as well as protecting the oral pathway. “It’s got a unique design that makes it very comfortable for the user, and because of this design, it frees up the hands of the staff and the dentist, so they can perform 2-handed, 2-quadrant dentistry,” Snyder says. “As a result, the device generates between 25% and 40% reduction in procedure time when it’s used during a typical clinical procedure.” DryShield has a comfortable silicone bite block, making it especially useful for pediatric patients.

This end-to-end dental water solution provides and empowers dental practices with better, simpler, and more efficient dental water solutions. 