Technology

Laser technology has been used for decades to improve the outcomes and efficiency of medical procedures. At the Cosmetic and Dental Implant Center, we use laser dentistry to perform soft tissue treatments for our patients. Non-invasive laser dentistry benefits our patients because our dentists can perform procedures more efficiently with little to no bleeding and faster recovery times.

The laser dental procedures we provide are:

• Periodontal disease treatment — With dental lasers, we can do away with invasive “cut and stitch” gum surgery and long recovery times.
• Gum reshaping — Also called gum recontouring, dental lasers allow our dentists to help patients by eliminating “gummy smiles.”
• Crown lengthening — We use laser dentistry to reshape gum tissue and bone to promote healthy tooth structure and help with the placement of dental restorations.
• Remove oral growths — Dental lasers comfortably treat cold sores, canker sores, and fever blisters, and minimize the risk of future outbreaks.

With digital x-rays, we can identify and diagnose minor tooth problems like cavities and gum disease before they become painful and more complex to treat. At CDIC, we use modern digital x-rays because they emit a low radiation dose of 80–90% less than older film x-rays. 

Another benefit of digital x-rays is that they are a fantastic educational tool to inform our patients about their oral health. When we display your digital x-rays on the chairside monitor, we can show you the problem area, and you can understand how treatment will benefit you.

We also improve the comfort of taking digital x-rays because we use flat digital sensors to capture images instead of bulky clips. Since the images and our patient records are digital, we store them in your patient history, and our team can view them as needed. 

Since no harsh chemicals are needed to process films, digital x-rays are also safer for our environment. 

Panoramic digital x-rays provide an image of all your teeth in a single x-ray. These x-rays show a detailed view of tooth position, sinuses, and bone abnormalities. Panoramic x-rays are also commonly used to plan orthodontic treatment, tooth extractions, dental implants, and root canals.

Some of the dental and medical problems that panoramic x-rays reveal include:

• Advanced periodontal disease
• Bone abnormalities
• Impacted wisdom teeth
• Jaw tumors and oral cancer
• Jaw disorders, including TMJ

Unlike digital x-rays, we take panoramic x-rays outside the mouth (extra-oral). We have you stand in front of the x-ray unit, which rotates around your head in a semi-circle. Taking x-rays this way is perfect for patients with a strong gag reflex, children who can’t tolerate intraoral x-rays, and patients with special needs.

Two-dimensional digital x-rays are indispensable diagnostic tools, but sometimes our dentists need to see details that can only be viewed in 3-D. That is when our dentists turn to 3-D Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT), a special type of imaging technology that we use for planning dental implant placement and other procedures. 

CBCT gives our dentists a three-dimensional, 360-degree view of the entire mouth, showing teeth, bone thickness, gum structures, sinuses, and nerve orientation. Planning dental implant placement requires a high degree of precision, and seeing the placement of these features is critical to ensure a comfortable procedure and positive long-term outcomes.

Our dentists also use CBCT to plan routine tooth extractions, impacted wisdom tooth extractions, and root canals. Your CBCT scans become part of your digital patient record for easy, efficient access by our dental team.

Have you ever had a dental impression taken? If so, you may remember that it was a messy, uncomfortable process. Biting down on a big metal tray full of goopy paste and waiting for what seems like an eternity for it to set is nobody’s idea of fun! 

Thankfully, those days are gone! At CDIC, our state-of-the-art digital impressions simplify and streamline the process. No metal trays and no messy, gaggy paste—taking a digital dental impression is as easy as passing a handheld intraoral scanner over your teeth. 

Digital impressions also produce far more accurate and detailed results than we can obtain with paste, which is crucial when planning Invisalign treatment and designing tooth restorations like crowns, bridges, veneers, and Invisalign treatment. 

The goal of root canal treatment is to relieve pain by removing the infected dental pulp from inside the tooth. If you’ve had a root canal, you probably remember the traditional method where the dentist used manual steel files to meticulously clean out the canals. While this method is effective, it takes time, and it often produces unpleasant vibrations for the patient.

At CDIC, we use leading-edge rotary endodontic technology that makes removing infected pulp much more efficient and comfortable for the patient. Rotary endodontics is electrically powered, and the flexible nickel-titanium tip thoroughly clears away the infected material. Because the design of this technology allows our dentists to reach deeper into curved root canals to clean them thoroughly, we can help ensure more favorable long-term outcomes.

An intraoral camera is a small handheld digital device that is the size and shape of a large pen. The tiny camera is equipped with a light that illuminates the inside of the mouth, and the full-color images are transmitted to your chairside monitor for viewing. 

As we move it over your teeth, the intraoral camera gives you and our dentist a magnified view of your teeth. We can also freeze the image and magnify it more than 30x so we can view a single tooth with you, and you can see it from every aspect. 

An intraoral camera shows us many conditions in greater detail than a visual exam alone and provides:

• Tooth surfaces
• Gum disease
• Cavities
• Damaged or broken fillings
• Hairline tooth fractures

Intraoral cameras allow you to visualize oral health conditions so you can better understand how they affect your oral health and the benefit of treating them. They also allow our dentists to detect problems like cavities in their earliest stages when treatment is typically less complex and costly.

Because we use digital x-rays, digital scanners, and digital imaging at CDIC, it only makes sense to follow through with digital record-keeping. With digital records, we store all your oral health history safely on our secure in-house network.

Any of our trained dental team members can access your patient history, x-rays, scans, and intraoral images at the touch of a button without searching through mountains of paperwork. Digital records are also easy to share with your insurance company and other specialists as needed.

We believe you enjoy a comfortable, stress-free appointment, so we have TVs in all our treatment rooms. Get comfortable with a neck pillow or blanket, and watch your favorite TV show or news program while we provide the dental care you need.