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OVO Intraoral Scanner

A MILLENIAL DENTIST’S HACK- INTRAORAL SCANNING

- by Dr. Agrima Thakur
Practising Orthodontist & Freelance Journalist
Mumbai, India

You attended dental school in the new millennium, the 2000s or 2010s, where you learned extensively about amalgam restorations, older impression materials and gypsum products. You always wondered how relevant these would be to your clinical practice while you spent hours and hours mugging up compositions, setting reactions, working times and whatnot. You now understand that these ‘older methods in dentistry’, while not so relevant anymore, helped improve your knowledge, hands-on skill and patience.

You, as a millenial dentist, now probably run a mid-level to large, successful practice of your own. You want to expand, optimize efficiency, and provide excellent patient care, so you certainly don’t offer amalgam restorations to your patients anymore. Then why are you still using the near-redundant practice of impression-making?

With traditional dental impressions, you’re on the clock as soon as you open up the pack- limited working time, messy workflow, sub-par accuracy and more helping hands required- there is room for error at every step of the production chain! Moreover, patients don't enjoy it either. Is there an alternative then? There is- an intraoral scanner. They have been around for many years but are much more practical and affordable now.

WHAT ARE INTRAORAL SCANNERS, AND HOW DO THEY WORK?

Let's start with the basics. Intraoral scanners are diagnostic devices that help create digital dental impressions and models. They offer considerable advantages over traditional impression and model-making techniques, as they eliminate several workflow barriers (which we’ve listed in the next section).

THE CASE FOR INTRAORAL SCANNERS

If you are in the business of dentistry, an intraoral scanner can be a useful long-term investment. As a consultant orthodontist at several clinics in an Indian metro city, I've observed plenty of resistance to making the switch. I’m here to remind you why you absolutely must make the switch.

1. The Patient Experience

Clean, noncomplicated, safe. No gag and no bad memories.

2. The Practitioner’s/Assistant’s Experience

No need to worry about setting times, pouring the impression, or creating the models. Additional costs like materials, laboratory space, and inventory management hassles are also avoided.

3. The Lab Experience

Margins not recorded? Air bubble error? Is the undercut/path of insertion not matching the one intraorally? Or did your stone cast simply slip off your hand and break? That’s 2 additional days your patient goes without their prosthesis. Time is money, friends; and scanners save lots of time.

4. The Digital Advantage

You can store as many impressions as you want on the cloud, without worrying about physical storage space. You can also map the progress of your patients or create a dramatic before-after transformation reel for Facebook/Instagram. The possibilities are endless when you choose to go digital.

5. The Waste Experience

I will always push my agenda for reducing single-use waste in medical practices. The earth has limited resources—and while there weren't better alternatives before, there is an excellent alternative now—so what are we waiting for?

INTRAORAL SCANNERS- WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS?

There are several intraoral scanner manufacturers and providers out there. Here, we list some of them-

MY OVO EXPERIENCE

Enzi Electronics Pvt Ltd is the supplier of Ovo and Heron IOS in India. The team consists of dental specialists Drs Anirudh Kumar Mathur and Dr Rakesh Rao, who have both been in academia and have been practising dentistry actively for 25+ years. The team understands the art and science of good dental work and is dedicated to keeping up R&D activities to empower dental professionals with knowledge. Entrepreneur Vijay Thota renders business support from the USA.

The team at Enzi Electronics India was kind enough to let me try out their product, the Ovo scanner, during my search for an intraoral scanner. Having used the Medit and Helios scanners and witnessed Itero scanners in action previously, I was on the lookout for 3 major requirements- a user-friendly software interface, sturdiness and economics.

Here’s the thing- as a millennial dentist, our patients are increasingly becoming tech-savvy and google-friendly. During a consultation, I don't want to have to excuse myself for software lags and technical complications. These days, in the patient’s eye, a confident practitioner who knows his/her tools- whether they are dental instruments or machines- means a trustworthy practitioner.

The 3disc claim of their 2 scanners- Ovo and Heron IOS promoting ‘Perfect integration synergy between Dentists, Patients and Laboratories’ sounds huge, right? Here are my first thoughts:

Quick Start with Software

As the associate fired up the software, it took almost no time to get started. You type in the patient specifics on a well-detailed patient chart provided by the software, or, if you don't want to do any typing, just start scanning with no data entry whatsoever.

Lightweight and Maneuverable Design

With a unique handle shape that gives them a sophisticated edge, the OVO scanners are lightweight and their tip rotates 360 degrees. They maneuver well intraorally and can clearly record the last upper molars' distal aspects.

Efficient Scanning Process

We didn’t have to stay at each tooth/intraoral area for more than 2 seconds to record them, which tends to be the case with some of the mid- to low-budget scanners I have previously worked with.

Seamless Software Processing

The software processed our case fairly seamlessly, with no lags or waiting time.

Scan & Tell Feature

Scan & Tell was a particularly cool feature where a patient report was generated based on a single 3D scan. This report had a personalized treatment plan to show/discuss with our patient—and it all took barely any additional time!

Dr Alberic Santamaria, a dental practitioner from France, says- “What patients see, they understand”. Scan & Tell’s algorithm automatically selects the best 2D images from the 3D scan, streamlining the workflow to create a treatment plan instantly. According to company data, this has helped improve patient trust and treatment acceptance from 54% to a good 91%.

So naturally, if you’re looking for a smooth transition to digital dentistry, it’s easier with features like these. The Scan & Tell report can also be sent as an email to your patient’s inbox, where they can visualise a summary of their dental findings and treatment options. I sent one such report to my own inbox to see what sort of data is shared with the patients, and I was pretty happy with the results. I'm posting screenshots below for you all.

    

As a further development, Scan & Tell has recently been updated to The New Scan & Tell, featuring AI inputs for a more seamless user interface. This update claims to create a customized treatment plan within 4 clicks per indication, after which you can send an interactive 3D scan directly to your patient’s phone! And that’s not all; Fly AI- the artificial intelligence tool employed in Ovo and Heron IOS scanners- can ignore disturbances like fingers, lips, tongue or other soft tissues, allowing precise scans. Where will you store all this data? Answer- 3Disc users get unlimited storage space on the OVOCloud.

Now, the OVO scanners had already addressed ⅔ of my criteria- a user-friendly, fast software not too heavy on the pocket. But what about longevity? Were they sturdy enough for long-term use? Upon interacting with the executives at Enzy, I found that the device is one of the lightest scanners in the market—it weighs 150 grams—so it’s pretty convenient to carry. The autoclavable tips can be used up to 250 times, which speaks for the quality of the material used in manufacturing the product. Dr Julija Zarkova Atanasova, an Assistant professor and prosthodontist from North Macedonia, says, “After almost 2 years of using the intraoral scanner Heron OVO, the implementation of Fly AI in the software has been a game changer. The program allows for lightning-fast, error-free and precise scanning.”

FINAL THOUGHTS

As dentists in this day and age of advancing technology, we need to level up on par with our tech-savvy patients. Cut the clutter and try out an intraoral scanner. Let the AI deal with issues like tongue/soft tissue, which traditionally cause difficulties in impression-making! The time saved, finesse, and improved results will lead to happy patients and an ever-growing dental practice.

Thanks for reading, and my best regards to you for making the switch!

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