Annapolis Dentist

How Our Technology Helps You

At our Annapolis dentist office, we make sure to keep up with the latest dental technology for our patients. We want you to have the best experience possible for your dental procedure, no matter why you’re in our office. Dr. Scott Finlay of Annapolis Smiles discusses the technology offered in our office and what it can do for you.

iTero Element Intraoral Scanner

This digital scanner helps us do many things, and allows you, the patient, to clearly see the results as well. You’re able to see your smile on the screen, which helps us to explain any dental issues better. When you can clearly see what we’re referencing, it’s easier to understand, especially when you’re a visual learner.

iTero is especially beneficial when it comes to the Invisalign process. When we take the initial scans and images to begin your treatment, we’ll be able to project an image of the final result you’re aiming for with Invisalign treatment. Throughout the process, we’re able to give you a 3D image of how your treatment is progressing when you come in for a checkup.

Digital Dental Impressions

Dental impressions have been known as one of the worst parts of dental or orthodontic work. But with the Lava C.O.S., we can eliminate the messy impressions process around 80% of the time. Instead of biting into a tray that contains putty-like impression material, a digital wand is used to go over all of your teeth.

When a digital impression is able to be used, the wand doesn’t even have to come into contact with your teeth. The wand is equipped with a tiny camera lens that captures images of your teeth. While this may not completely eliminate the need for traditional impressions, it helps make the process go smoother in most of the cases we see in our office.

Tekscan/T-scan

The dental industry has long had issues with measuring force in the mouth. The methods available haven’t been sensitive enough to gather the data that’s really needed. T-scan changes this. It’s a thin piece of plastic that’s equipped with pressure sensors. It’s held by a handle that sends this information to the computer.

When you bite down, it can detect simultaneous contact of your upper and lower jaw, exposing which teeth are hitting the sensors and when. It also detects the force of the bite and which teeth are causing what amount of force. All of this is transferred to the computer and converted to an easily-readable digital form that can be assessed by our dental team.

This is extremely important for modern dentistry. When teeth are being restored, dental porcelain is often the material of choice. But depending on the way force is exerted, the dental porcelain may fracture or chip in the same way as your teeth. We want to make sure we can eliminate as many issues with this as possible.

Dental implants are another use for this technology. While implants are anchored in the jaw like natural teeth, they respond to forces differently. Natural teeth have a thin membrane that accounts for a bit of movement. We want your dental implants to last you years to come. This helps us to account for the use of force and how the implants will respond to it.