Why Digital Dentistry Matters to You.

April 24, 2019

Why Digital Dentistry Matters to You.

Dr. Mollot talks about why staying on the technology forefront is really all about you.

When we come through the doors of our clinic each morning, every member of our team has a unique day ahead of them, with different tasks and goals. But no matter what our different roles are, every one of us has the same overarching priority: to create an exceptional overall experience for our patients.

“The desire to improve the patient experience is at the foundation of the group we have here,” says Dr. Marc Mollot. “Everyone on the team is always trying to make the patient experience better – to go from 95% good to 100% great. It’s not a person or a department, it’s a culture.”

A big part of that drive toward the best possible experience for you is our mission to stay at the forefront of digital dentistry.

So what is digital dentistry, and why should it matter to you?
In a nutshell, digital dentistry is the introduction of computerized technologies like 3D imaging to the process of your dental care, and its evolution has been a gamechanger for the dental industry. It is now possible for digital or computer-controlled components to carry out dental procedures, replacing mechanical or electrical tools. The result is dentistry that is not only more sophisticated, accurate, and esthetic, but also generally means a significantly faster and more comfortable experience for the patient.

“10 years ago, digital workflow was outside of the mouth – an analog mold, with digital technology on the lab side. Now digital has now gone to the patient,” explains Dr. Mollot. And that’s great news for you, not just in your experience (no more messy analog molds!) but in the incredibly accurate, realistic, and comfortable results you end up with. Our fully digital workflow and onsite lab allow us to give you exactly what you’re looking for.

“Digital dentistry has elevated the accuracy of what we do,” says Dr. Mollot. “Going digital has made dentistry more efficient, more accurate, and more fun. It has allowed us to apply accurate numerical rigour, rather than estimation. When we were analog and someone’s tooth was too short, we could ‘add  a smidge.’ With a computer, we can add exact millimeters.”

That heightened level of accuracy means that you get exactly the results you want, with a comfortable and convenient experience. You can trust that everything from the advanced digital scanning, done right in the comfort of our patient chairs, to the final restoration made in our onsite lab will be as exact as only digital technology can be.

How does our onsite lab impact your results?
We’re one of few dental clinics in Winnipeg to have our own onsite lab, and once again, it is really all about you.

“When it comes to complex dentistry,” explains Dr. Mollot, “the dentist’s interplay with the lab technician is critical, and communication breakdowns between dentists and lab technicians can be fairly significant.”

Having a lab right onsite means that our dentists and lab technicians can collaborate closely throughout the process.

“We can be in the lab multiple times per day – the bigger the case, the more consultation we have together.”

And it’s not just our doctors heading down to the lab – the flow in our hallways goes both ways! Our lab technicians are able to be right in the operating room if needed, for example, doing custom colouration on restorations right in a patient’s mouth rather than on a model.

All of this consultation and communication adds up to what really matters: a final result that is exactly what you envisioned.

With digital dentistry constantly advancing, what’s next?
No matter what comes next, you can be sure that we’ll be on top of it!

“We have begun to integrate a digital intraoral scan and a digital 3D cone beam CT scan so that we can place a dental implant in a guided fashion,” Dr. Mollot shares. Using this combination of technologies, we  scan both a patient’s jaws and just the teeth, then use the full resulting picture to tell the lab exactly where we want to place an implant. A jig is then fabricated to guide the placement of the dental implant.

In terms of other technologies that we’re looking toward for the future, Dr. Mollot is excited about emerging abilities to photograph a patient’s face, then integrate the photo with a digital scan of the patient’s mouth to allow the patient to see the results of a potential restoration on their own face before we actually make anything, even a mold.

“We’ve always been at the forefront of pushing the profession forward,” says Dr. Mollot. “Dentists at TDG did this in the past, and we want to continue with that culture.”

With that mission in mind, Dr. Mollot continues to lecture on the topic of digital dentistry, following up speaking engagements in BC last year with an upcoming lecture to the dental community here in Winnipeg this spring. Dr. Mollot also had an article on the topic of aesthetic dentistry published recently in Oral Health, which you can read here.

Learn more about the use of digital dentistry in our clinic here, read more about our onsite lab here, and check out some digital dentistry case studies featuring Dr. Mollot’s patients right here.

Whether you need to talk over a dental issue that’s been troubling you or just need a cleaning, you can see the TDG experience firsthand by booking an appointment!