Noah Levine

Any practice using the DTX Studio Clinic software platform.

Whenever 2D periapical or bitewing intraoral radiographs are being captured or reviewed.

Seamlessly integrated into the DTX Studio Clinic platform, the assisted intelligence (AI) features provide additional insight and information for clinicians without changing any part of the imaging workflow. Additionally, the AI-reviewed images can be shared with patients to help highlight the issues a clinician confirms in a radiograph.

Using AI, DTX Studio Clinic analyzes x-ray images and highlights up to 6 potential pathologies for clinicians to scrutinize. With FDA clearance for detection of potential caries, marginal discrepancies, root canal defects, periapical radiolucencies, bone loss, and calculus, DTX Studio Clinic is designed to help clinicians detect and treat a wide range of oral conditions.

Articles

This advanced dental imaging application is now FDA cleared for assisted intelligence highlighting of 6 pathologies in 2D radiographs.

5Ws* DTX Studio™ Clinic

Video Test Drive: Primescan Connect from Dentsply Sirona

Material Insights: Brush Bond MAX from Parkell

Video Test Drive: OMNICHROMA Flow BULK and BLOCKER FLOW from Tokuyama

Mastermind - Episode 28 - How Artificial Intelligence is Changing Dentistry

Mastermind - Episode 30 - Tackling Today's Tough Challenges

Product Bites September 22 2023

AHDA23 Annual Conference in 4 Minutes

Product Bites August 11 2023

Mastermind - Episode 29 - Addressing Racial Disparities in Hiring at Dental Practices

Mastermind - Episode 31 - Retaining Dental Staff

Whether shot on site at a conference, recorded over Zoom, or captured in some other setting, video was a big part of the content published by Dental Products Report in 2023. The most popular videos of the year include a mix of product evaluations, roundtable discussions and weekly new product roundups. Check out the 10 most viewed videos of the year right here.

Top 10 Dental Products Report News Items of 2023

With the rise of artificial intelligence everywhere, major data breaches, and the continued march of innovation, 2023 proved to be a notable year when it comes to dental news. Here's a look at the 10 most popular news items from the past year.

Top 10 Dentist's Money Digest Articles of 2023

Throughout 2023 Dentist's Money Digest published articles aimed at help dental professionals find financial success to match their clinical success. Here is a slideshow highlighting the top most viewed DMD articles of 2023.

Ideal for mobile or remote dentistry, the Air2Zed Wireless X-ray System makes sense anywhere intraoral x-rays are taken, especially in a busy practice.

The system can be used anytime a digital intraoral radiograph is captured.

Capable of turning almost any intraoral sensor into a wireless x-ray system, the plug-and-play Air2Zed solution reduces operatory clutter and tripping hazards, while reducing wear and tear on the sensor. The wireless connection extends a sensor's range 3 times or more, and the system makes it possible to move a sensor between operatories at the push of a button. 

The Air2Zed system includes receivers that connect to a computer via USB, and portable transmitters that are compatible with most digital sensors. One transmitter can be paired with multiple receivers, allowing a single sensor to be moved between operatories and connected to different computers via control on the transmitter. The data is transmitted via a secure point-to-point network and does not require WiFi or access to any external software. The Air2Zed platform can be expanded with additional transmitters and receivers as the practice grows.

Designed to make most brands of digital x-ray sensor a wireless x-ray sensor, this imaging innovation is simple to set up and adds efficiency and flexibility to any dental practice.

5Ws* Air2Zed System

Chairside or anywhere in the office financial arrangements will be discussed.

Immediately after diagnosing treatment and reviewing financial arrangements.

Patients are more likely to say yes to treatment and financing when they can clearly review and select from multiple options. AcceptCare provides patients with custom financing offers that can make treatment attainable for any patient.

AcceptCare allows patients to review different payment and financing plans for the proposed treatment, with a multi-lender network that can find financing options at different monthly price points. The platform integrates with leading practice management software applications and can send patients reminders about care offerings, allowing them to accept proposed treatment after leaving the office.

The AcceptCare platform is designed to drive treatment acceptance via a multi-level approach that helps patients find options to make care affordable.

5Ws* AcceptCare

Hanife Bayraktaroglu DDS speaks about the Yomi robot from Neocis at the 2023 AAID Annual Conference.

Attendees were focused on unique educational opportunities from leading dental implant experts, as well as a chance to see some of the latest technologies and approaches to dental implant care during the 2023 American Academy of Implant Dentistry (AAID) Annual Conference in Las Vegas, November 1-4.

The meeting was busy with dental professionals networking and sharing their expertise, whether in the range of lectures, hands-on courses, and specialized educational tracks, or while walking the conference center hallways, or exhibit hall aisles. Here is a wrap up of some of what happened during AAID 2023.

Lecturers on the AAID 2023 mainstage touched on a range of topics, but the importance of digital technology in both treatment design and execution was a connective theme between many presentations.

In a presentation titled “Robotics and Facial Esthetics” Hanife Bayraktaroglu, DDS, shared how the guided robotic technology of Neocis’ Yomi helped give her the confidence to take on more complex implant cases. With Yomi she can plan implant placements digitally, and then the system’s robotic arm guides her handpiece to make sure they are delivered to those precise spots and the planned angulation.

“We want to obtain control of every aspect of clinical care, and the robot is one tool that helps us do that,” she says.

Among the other key technologies for Dr Bayraktaroglu were CBCT imaging, intraoral scans, and photogrammetry which she said is likely to be the standard of care for restoring full-arch cases.

Another mainstage presenter who highlighted the importance of the accuracy of digital imaging was Scott Ganz, DMD, who shared his best practices for helping patients with malpositioned implants. Dr Ganz walked the audience through a series of cases featuring failing previously placed implants. Whether the implants were showing their threads above the gumline, or had been placed in ill-advised positions previously, Dr Ganz detailed how 3D imaging and treatment planning in a digital environment allow him to find where there is bone, and how he can create a platform to support new implants and a restoration.

Dr Ganz also highlighted a range of digital technologies key to his successful outcomes. Along with CBCT imaging, intraoral scanning, and photogrammetry for planning the treatment and the restoration, he demonstrated how 3D printing can be used to create custom guides for these unique situations, which allows him to deliver optimal outcomes.

The Implant World Expo exhibit hall was not bursting with product launches, but a look at who was exhibiting, and what they were showing provided a great look at the trends when it comes to implant dentistry. Innovation in the design of implants themselves continues to be one story, as manufacturers continue to refine the design and surface of the implants themselves. But the design of implant connections, and abutment solutions are also impacting the possibilities of what can be engineered when it comes to full-arch restorations.

There are also a range of new approaches to the implant workflow with companies such as InstaRisa with its extraoral face-scanning solution, and S.I.N. 360 with its end-to-end workflow for providing full-arch, implant-supported restorations.

Of course, along with the dental implants, numerous products designed to aid with healing were also on display. StellaLife was on hand showcasing the research supporting the use of its VEGA Oral Care Gel as an alternative to chlorhexidine for post-surgical care.

While the 2023 AAID Annual Conference is over, next year’s event is already set. The 2024 AAID Annual Conference will be November 13-16, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Here’s a quick hitting rundown of some of the mainstage lecturers, products, and trends we noticed while attending the 2023 American Academy of Implant Dentistry Annual Conference.

AAID 2023: Speaker, News, and Product Wrap Up

Richard Miron, DMD, MMSc, PhD, presenting at 2023 AAID Annual Conference

As a researcher, author and educator, Richard Miron, DMD, MMSc, PhD is known for his work on periodontal wound healing and helping develop platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) protocols and clinical applications, but as he took the podium on the mainstage at the 2023 American Academy of Implant Dentistry Annual Conference, he shared how began a growing facial esthetics business based on increasing patient demands for “Vampire Facials” a skincare procedure using either hyaluronic acid or PRF and microneedling.

Dr Miron shared his story about how his interest in implants and a scholarship opportunity led him to Bern, Switzerland for advanced studies in biology, dental implants, and periodontics. While he remains an active researcher and academic, Dr Miron says he feels its important to stay clinically active and treating patients so he can see the real-world applications of the concepts he researches.

When he saw the potential of providing facial esthetics alongside dental treatments using the technologies he researches, he jumped into it, and created a model for dental professional-delivered facial esthetic services that now spread to close to 200 practices around the country. Dr Miron encouraged the audience to look into providing facial esthetic services, but before he shared more details on the possibilities in facial esthetic services, Dr Miron backed up and provided a detailed rundown on the science behind PRF.

He first noted how at a cellular level the human body has an amazing ability to close wounds and heal itself. The process of blood clotting and concentrating growth factors and other beneficial natural chemicals at the wound site promotes this healing, but this requires blood flow, and the effectiveness of self healing changes throughout a person’s life.

“As we age, your ability to heal yourself goes down,” he says.

Dr Miron noted that clotting is a critical step in healing, but some wounds do not heal properly whether because of a lack of sufficient blood flow to the wounded area, or other factors. The PRF precursor platelet rich plasma (PRP) was developed to bring these blood-based healing factors directly to wound sites. In dentistry both PRP and PRF have been mixed with graft materials to promote healing, but Dr Miron explained why they are not interchangeable.

“PRF allows clinicians to take concentrated blood growth factors and put them in places where there’s not enough blood flow to promote healing,” he says.

With PRP a patient’s blood is spun in a centrifuge to separate the while blood cells, the red blood cells and the platelets. However, traditional blood draw tubes contain anti-clotting factors to keep the blood from clotting and becoming unusable. However, with PRP some of those anti-clotting factors remain in the PRP material, meaning some negatives are mixed into the positive benefits from the platelets. For PRF special tube were designed with hydrophobic properties to keep blood in a liquid form for 4 hours without the use of any additives.

This allows PRF to provide all the benefits from the concentrated platelets while also promoting clotting, and thus promoting enhanced wound healing. Dr Miron says that with this knowledge he would not consider using PRP in clinical care any longer.

Before he moved on to discussing dental and esthetic uses of PRF, Dr Miron first shared a series of examples of the results medical doctors are having when using PRF with patients who are at risk of having a digit or a limb amputated due to a wound not healing. In many cases use of a custom PRF membrane can help patient wounds heal and eliminate the need for an amputation. Dr Miron explained that PRF in a normal clot will keep working for approximately 2 weeks.

Still, Dr Miron explained that PRF wasn’t the answer for situations requiring longer healing times, but that changed in 2019, with the development of Alb-PRF, a mixture of heated PRF and unheated PRF to create a more robust form of the healing agent that provides benefits for 4-6 months. In his practice, Dr Miron now uses Alb-PRF in his practice to make custom membranes for his periodontal patients which are both less expensive and more effective than collagen membranes.

“In my perio practice we have not used a collagen membrane in years,” he says.

In other fields this new, longer-lasting form of PRF is allowing medical doctors to create new minimally invasive treatments. One example Dr Miron shared is that spinal surgeons are using Alb-PRF injections rather than invasive surgery for patients with serious and painful back ailments.

When sharing best practices for producing PRF chairside, Dr Miron explained how there isn’t a specific RPM and time for blood to be in a centrifuge to create PRF because the power of the G-forces on the blood in the centrifuge is more important than the speed at which it spins. While a centrifuge manufacturer might provide a protocol with an RPM setting, that would only be accurate for using that exact system.

Dr Miron also explained the physics of the centrifuge process and why using a system that spins blood in a horizontal position is better than one that spins at a fixed angle. He says that spinning the blood in this way will produce 4 times the beneficial factors than spinning an angled tube of blood.

While he does use PRF in a range of esthetic procedures, Dr Miron also uses it with implant and periodontal cases. One technique he is using involves placing a PRF matrix around implant healing caps both help promote wound healing, and to help prevent the colonization of bacteria at the implant site.

“Bacteria love the roughened portion of dental implants,” Dr Miron says. “[With PRF it’s] not just platelets to help the implant heal faster, but it’s also leukocytes that are antibacterial.”

Other clinical uses include using an incubator for the production of PRF clots that can be tucked into periodontal pockets, and application at bone graft sites to prevent infection and promote healing. He uses 3D design software and a 3D printer to create custom PRF clot grafts shaped to match the patient’s specific needs. He noted that not only is the treatment effective, but also affordable and profitable for a dental practice.

“Everybody should do this. It literally costs a dollar.”

Using PRF to create custom grafts helps speed healing, and depending on the case standard PRF can be used and resorbed in several weeks instead of several months for traditional graft materials. For cases that require longer term healing, Alb-PRF lasts 4 to 6 months before resorption, making it a great replacement for collagen.

With the science explained, and the dental applications demonstrated, Dr Miron finally returned to the topic of facial esthetics, explaining the market for these services is far larger than that for dental services, and adding these services to a practice is generally easy, as many of the services can be provided by hygienists or assistants with just a little education.

While facial esthetic treatments are offered in a range of settings both clinical and retail, Dr Miron argues that dentists are better educated about facial anatomy than most esthetic providers, and thus are better prepared to offer esthetic services. He says microneedling is a service dentists can easily add to their practice. It’s safe for patients, can be used to break up scar tissue, and when combined with PRF or hyaluronic acid, provides a very effective skin care treatment. Other esthetic uses of this technology include using Alb-PRF as an all-natural alternative to the dermal fillers used in eye lifts, and even in procedures like the Brazilian Butt Lift.

On the mainstage at the 2023 AAID Annual Conference, Richard Miron, DMD, MMSc, PhD shared his journey from researching cell biology and working as a periodontist to promoting and providing facial esthetic treatment.

Promoting Wound Healing with Platelet-Rich Fibrin

Dr Danny Domingue shows off the final result of an implant-supported prosthetic ear he designed and placed.

Patients with extreme oral health situations are common at the Lafayette, Louisiana, practice of Danny Domingue, DDS, FAAID, DABOI/ID, and through the use of technology, creativity, and his dedication to finding solutions, he is helping to change those patient’s lives.

A general dentist, Dr Domingue does much more than providing full arch restorations, but those complex cases were the focus of his mainstage presentation during the 2023 American Academy of Implant Dentistry (AAID) Annual Conference. While those cases can be complex, and each one requires some unique problem solving, Dr Domingue believes dentists have the tools necessary to deliver lasting solutions for those patients who need implant-retained full-arch restorations.

“It should not be stressful by any means,” he says.

While showing off his implant workflow, Dr Domingue highlighted a number of technologies that play important roles in delivering optimal outcomes to patients. These technologies include digital impressions, CBCT scans, extraoral facescans, virtual articulators, digital treatment planning, 3D printing, and photogrammetry. Still, he relies on analog impression materials to capture specific details when the depth of a socket or the presence of too much blood makes his Medit intraoral scanner unable to deliver the detail and accuracy he needs to design the case.

Still, that intraoral scanner is an essential part of the process as he employs digital impressions and extraoral facescans to work out the proper bite for the patient at the start of his workflow. He then doesn’t have to focus on the bite and occlusion while designing the rest of the case.

These images can then be used to create a digital waxup and a smile visualization to show patients their potential treatment outcomes. Dr Domingue highlighted the importance of letting patients see what can be done at the outset as this can get them invested in pursuing and completing treatment.

“People are very visual, they want to see something,” he says.

When planning his implant treatments he uses BlueSkyBio software to plan the implant locations and then to design a custom surgical guide. During the presentation, Dr Domnigue showed how it takes him just 12 minutes to design a custom guide for an edentulous patient. Designed in several parts, and linked together with pins and magnets, the guide can be 3D printed in his practice, and he says this makes placing the implants simple.

After the implants are placed, he uses photogrammetry to verify position for passive fit of the full arch restoration. This information is sent to the lab to complete restoration design, and he says overlaying the follow-up CBCT scan onto his planned treatment is satisfying as it lets him see the accuracy of his treatment.

“It’s really cool to see your implant positions overlapped to your preop positions, just like you planned,” he says.

After sharing his workflows and protocols, Dr Domingue discussed the importance of maintaining the gingiva even in full-arch restorations. He noted that for single implant cases, gingival management is a part of the workflow for most dentists, but it seems to be an afterthought when providing full-arch restorations.

The time for tissue management is while the patient is wearing the temporary restoration, he says. To ensure a healthy and proper gingival profile, Dr Domingue asks his lab to design the temporary to put some extra force on the gingiva which will help create a healthy gingival profile as the implants heal.

Another area where Dr Domingue says clinicians could be doing better is when it comes to designing hygienic full arch restorations. There should be no reason to remove a fixed full-arch implant restoration for a patient’s hygiene appointment, but many practices do this because the restorations have gaps or voids between the restoration and tissue that are difficult for patients to care for with the restoration fixed in place.

“I don’t take these out, because I don’t design them like that,” he says.

Dr Domingue says clinicians need to make sure not to design full arch restorations with cantilevers, or other unhygienic design features.

In the final segment of his presentation, Dr Domingue shared a pair of unique challenges he was able to solve with the same digital tools he uses with implant cases. In the first example, he shared the case of a patient who, along with needing dental treatment, was also missing an ear. Dr Domnigue demonstrated how he designed produced and surgically placed several implants with an attachment bar to hold the prosthetic ear in place in the same way fixed removable dentures are retained.

The second example focused on fowl patients, as a group of researchers studying duck behaviors came to him looking for ideas on how to make a better harness for the computers they attach to ducks and use for the research. Using the same technology he uses to design implant cases for his human patients, Dr Domingue walked through his process of developing a framework that can be affixed to a duck with implants and then provides a solid connection on which to mount the research equipment.

In his mainstage presentation during the 2023 American Academy of Implant Dentistry Annual Conference, Danny Domingue, DDS, FAAID, DABOI/ID, showed how the latest implant technology has helped him change the lives of his patients.

Digital Workflows Transform What Can Be Accomplished With Dental Implants

Densah Burs from Versah (top), ICam4D from IMetric4D (middle), Vortex Screw (bottom).

Dental Professionals with a passion for implants descended upon Las Vegas this week to attend the 2023 American Academy of Implant Dentistry (AAID) Annual Conference.

With dentists, team members, and lab technicians from around the country and globe in attendance the 4-day meeting is featuring a wide array of in-depth and hands-on educational opportunities on topics such as implant technology and techniques, as well as dental sleep medicine, business, and more. But while the classrooms and exhibit hall have certainly been busy, the real action seems to be happening in between the events, as the hallways have been plenty busy as well with networking dental professionals.

While numerous topics were being discussed on the stages and throughout the Caesar’s Palace conference center hallways, some of the hottest topics included the digitalization of dental treatment planning, and the need for the most precise scanning technologies available, especially for full-arch cases, which were another hot topic at the event. While workflows and technologies powering single implant cases have become more streamlined and standardized, implant specialists throughout the show discussed the increasing demand for full-arch, implant-supported restorations.

While these restorations can make a huge impact on patients, there is growing concern about the long-term success of these restorations when they are not designed to properly manage the ways the patient’s bite will apply forces to the restoration. As these restorations are more common clinicians spoke about seeing an increase in broken screws and restorations.

To overcome this challenge, clinicians are adding photogrammetry solutions to their armamentariums. These systems use special cameras and specially marked scanning abutments to capture a highly precise record of the implant positions in 3 dimensions. While many practices use intraoral scanning and CBCT 3D imaging to accomplish this task, implant specialist are now saying more accuracy is needed to plan restorations with a true passive fit that can withstand long-term use by the patient.

In the exhibit hall, dubbed the Implant World Expo, implant and implant-adjacent dental companies were busy showing their latest innovations to dental professionals, and while education seems to be the focus for most attendees, the Expo always felt active and never felt overcrowded, even during the on-site lunch and Thursday night cocktail reception. Among the newer and notable innovations on display, and being discussed from the podium included Versah’s Densah Burs, the IMetric ICam4D photogrammetry system, and while it wasn’t specifically on display, several speakers mentioned Vortex implant.

Designed for a range of clinical applications, Densah burs are designed for osseodensification drilling. This means that instead of removing bone tissue while drilling like a standard bur, Densah burs are designed to redistribute the bone material within the socket, to provide less invasive surgical procedures and shorter healing times.

The ICam photogrammetry system has become a necessary piece of equipment for many clinicians specializing in full-arch implant cases. The solution provides greater precision for 3D positioning information than other technologies, while saving time for both the clinician and the dental lab when it comes to designing and placing full-arch restorations.

The Vortex screw was developed by Danny Domingue, DDS, FAAID, DABOI/ID, to overcome an issue with standard implant screws. While a standard screw is designed in a way that leaves small gaps beneath the screw and space between the wall of the restoration and the outside of the screw, Vortex screws are shaped with a tapered side and without a defined ledge beneath the screw head. This design aims to reduce forces that can break or damage full-arch implant restorations.

 in the coming days for more coverage from the 2023 AAID Annual Conference.

The opening of the 2023 AAID Annual Conference was filled with excited dental professionals eager to learn and discuss the latest implant technologies, techniques, and trends.

With a Focus on Using Technology to Enhance Clinical Outcomes, the 2023 American Academy of Implant Dentistry Annual Conference is under way in Las Vegas