Panel discusses Sirona's CEREC 27 and a Half event, New Omnicam [VIDEO]

Dental Products Report digital media director Steve Diogo sat down with a panel of key opinion leaders, including Dr. Neal Patel, Dr. Tarun Agarwal and Sirona's VP of CAD/CAM Roddy MacLeod last week at the CEREC 27 and a Half event in Las Vegas. It was here where dental professionals got the first look at digital dentistry technology that is anticipated to revolutionize the way modern dental offices take 3-D images for digital impressions and chairside CAD/CAM restorations. The excited crowd couldn't seem to get enough of Sirona Dental Systems' CEREC Omnicam, and justifiably so. The digital camera marks a significant advancement over the CEREC’s previous image capture devices, providing fast capture of full arches and opposing dentition in full-color 3D video that allows continuous capture of the oral cavity.

"What the Omnicam does for the patient is it makes imaging fool proof," said Dr. Tarun Agarwal, a practicing clinician on the panel. "Now you simply put the Omnicam in the mouth and you glide and you scan," he explained. "There's no error. It's going to make everything a lot better for us."

CEREC 27 and a Half

The event brings together the CEREC community to learn and to also share philosophies outside the clinical realm.

Kendra, a dental consultant who also joined the panel discussion, said the meeting goes beyond the dentists.

"Dentists are only one person and they can only do so much," she said. "You have to have your staff to help drive that office and for the dentists who bring their staff it's phenomenal. It's such an educational meeting and the speakers are teaching the future."

Digital Technology at a Tipping Point

Dr. Agarwal said he believes Sirona's accomplishments in the last five years outpace what dentistry as an entire industry has accomplished in the last 20 years.

"Sirona has figured out a way to converge the technology," Dr. Agarwal said. "It's no longer CAD/CAM, and x-ray, and digital imaging; it's all one in the same because they [Sirona] has integrated the technology to the point where you can now objectively diagnose and quanitify what you have to do for your patients instead of subjectively trying to figure out what's best for them."