Excerpt from 21st-Century Dentistry

Serving Austin, Round Rock, And Surrounding Areas Of Texas

By Matthew Shulman
U.S. News & World Report - February 14, 2008

Digital impression technology, another recent advance, is taking the goo out of dentistry.

Crowns, bridges, and other restorative prosthetics require an impression of a patient's teeth in order to fit correctly. This usually involves a paste or putty that takes several minutes to set. But a "virtual" impression removes the discomfort from that wait. In the new process, a digital camera scans a portion of the mouth and creates a 3-D image that precisely reflects the size and position of each tooth. Dentists with certain equipment can then produce a custom-tailored prosthetic on the spot. Others send the image to an off-site manufacturing facility, an approach that may take a couple of weeks but offers patients a wider selection of materials, like gold and porcelain. Some dentists may build the cost of the equipment and processing into the price of the restoration, making the work more expensive than conventional restoration work, which remains most dentists' only offering.

When Martha Zeeman, 40, of Lake Forest, Ill., got fitted for a crown four years ago, she could barely tolerate the impression paste because of her strong gag reflex. So when she needed three crowns last fall, she became one of the first patients to receive a virtual impression using the recently approved iTero system. "There was no more unpleasant taste and definitely no more gagging," she says.

• 
• 
• 

• family dentistry
• cosmetic dentistry
  • Porcelain Veneers
  • Bonding
  • Tooth Whitening
  • Orthodontics
• restorative dentistry
  • Crowns
  • Inlay and Onlays
  • Bridges
  • Implant Dentistry
  • Tooth-colored Fillings
• Invisalign
• frequently asked questions
• affordable financing
• request an appointment
• patient forms
• contact us