3D scanning is older than you might think in medicine, it started to be adopted in the 1990s, but it is only in the last 5 years that 3D scanners have become especially small, fast and reliable. This allows them to enter an orthodontist’s tool set and plays a big part in how we provide Invisalign Harley Street.
In orthodontics, and other areas of dentistry, there have been times when we have needed to make extremely accurate measurements of a patient’s tooth structure, traditionally this has been done using dental notes and the techniques of moulding and casting that go back many years. Despite how effective dental moulds are at creating accurate and well-fitting crowns or sets of dentures, they have always been time consuming, uncomfortable and error prone, as any rough handling of the mould before it sets can distort the impression or leave bubbles which inevitably affect any future plaster casting of the mould.
Moving towards 3D scanning technology has reaped many benefits beyond the comfort and ease of our patients. The back-end handling of bulky moulds and the ingredients required to mix the polymers required in the mould and posting them to dental laboratories can all be done away with now we have adopted scanning methods. Invisalign Harley Street was one of the first to use a 3D model of a patient’s teeth; these were originally created by placing plaster moulds of a patient’s teeth in a 3D scanning studio. With this step removed, scanned files can immediately be sent to Invisalign to interact with their cloud-based software for the design stage of aligners, streamlining the aligner manufacturing process, allowing our patients to access clear aligners for the lowest cost in the shortest time frame.
Unforeseen advantages
Advantages that we have found with having our patients’ 3D dental records close to hand is the ability to communicate with other professionals around the world. Dentistry can become very complicated as every patient is different and sometimes a patient’s needs may exist outside the expertise of their dentist. By being able to send emails across the world to experts in far away regions with an attached copy of a 3D model, collaborative dentistry has been surprisingly effective at improving quality of care, the speed of treatment and level of specialisation, something that we did not expect.
Another unforeseen advantage is improved communication between dentist and patient, as now a dentist can show the 3D model of the patient’s teeth, pointing and describing exactly where an issue might be and how treatment resolves it. This is far easier than trying to describe the inside of a patient’s mouth to them, thus reducing treatment anxiety and also helping them to understand every stage of the treatment they are about to undergo.
Rapid manufacture of highly customised equipment
Having such a high quality record of the patient’s teeth in an easily transferable and communicable format allows for the manufacturing of highly customised pieces of equipment; things like bleaching trays, retainers and splints can be formed much faster than with traditional moulds. The benefits of Invisalign Harley Street have been extended far beyond what might first have been imagined.