Use of Intraoral Scanner in dentistry.

I will keep this article short and crisp. The intraoral scanner's most important function is co-diagnosis and co-discovery. It is like a magic wand, something that only Harry Potter had, but now it is available to us dentists at an unbelievable price.

See understand the value that it brings to the table. Apart from the chief complaint that the patient states, once you examine the mouth and tell him that you have 5 more initial carious lesions, 5 2 are big and need urgent attention. But the patient never realised the importance because -

A) It is not paining right now.

B) It is not something that they came for.

C) In their minds dentists are gold diggers and all they do is rip off patients of their hard-earned money.

However, now add to this situation a beautiful colourful scan of the teeth, projected on a 55-inch LED screen. The cavity looks like a crater on the moon. 9 out of 10 times the patient will himself ask, "Is that a cavity in my mouth? That big! What can be done about it?" and immediately you have one extra treatment sold to the patient.

Taking impressions for crowns and implants is just one of the functions, but the real value of the scanner is in co-diagnosis. Also, the question - "Which is the best scanner in the market?" My answer is - the cheapest one. As simple as anything. It makes no sense to spend 20 lakhs on a piece of equipment which will become outdated in the next 2-3 years. Just buy the cheapest one, sell more treatments, do more implants, earn good money, sleep well and get up fresh the next morning.

That is all there is to this magic wand.