Technology
At Bellevue Family Dentistry, technology plays an important role in diagnosis and treatment of your dental conditions.
In diagnosing dental decay, Dr. Bob uses a diagnostic laser called a Diagnodent. The Diagnodent sends a very low power laser beam into the grooves of the biting surfaces of the back teeth and then measures how much of the beam is reflected back. Cavities reflect a different amount of the beam than healthy teeth do. This laser allows us to locate cavities before we can detect them with a dental explorer, the little pick with which dentists and hygienists poke teeth. Early detection means a smaller cavity which leads to a smaller filling, saving the patient both tooth structure and money.
An additional aid to diagnosing cavities is our digital x-ray system. To adequately expose a digital sensor takes one-fourth the radiation it takes to expose an old-fashioned dental film x-ray. Plus computer software allows Dr. Bob to enhance and manipulate the digital image to give us information that the old-fashioned dental x-ray film could not. If a specialist needs a copy of the image, we can e-mail an original instead of having to make a duplicate film, thus saving you money.
Another layer of our digital imaging system is our digital panoramic and cephalometric machine. It produces digital images of the patient’s head from the eyes to below the chin and ear to ear without putting any cumbersome apparatus in your mouth. This kind of image excels in providing information about wisdom teeth, cysts and lesions of the jaw and face, and information on the temporomandibular joint (jaw joint). The panoramic image also provides growth and development information for potential orthodontic patients. The cephalometric image provides temporomandibular joint information as well as growth and development information. Because these are digital images, the amount of radiation required to get a good image is much less than the amount used to produce an old-fashioned film.
Once treatment begins a prime concern for you may be pain. The Wand TM anesthetic unit helps alleviate anxiety while being a great mode of anesthesia (tooth numbing). The Wand TM is an anesthetic pump connected to a computer chip. The chip senses how much pressure the anesthetic is experiencing to get into the tissue and pumps with just slightly more pressure thus getting the anesthetic into the area without creating a “fire hose” affect for you. The Wand TM injection syringe looks a lot like a BIC pen. This appearance helps eliminate your gasp at the sight of the old-fashioned hand syringe that some patients have described as the “six foot needle”. No “six foot needle” leads to no gasp. The Wand TM also easily allows some types of patient friendly injections that are very difficult to accomplish by hand. Your comfort is the key.
Many patients want to have whiter teeth and just don’t have the time to use an at home whitening system. At Bellevue Family Dentistry, we have an in office whitening system called Zoom TM. Zoom TM compacts two weeks of at-home whitening into a two and one-half hour in-office appointment. This is accomplished with a combination of professional strength whitening agent combined with the necessary safety agents and the ZoomTM whitening light. Dr. Bob’s patients love the speed and convenience.
To aid in dealing with some soft tissue and gum tissue problems, Dr. Bob uses a soft tissue laser. Continuing education plus the right technology in the form of the soft tissue laser allows removal of gum tissue as well as the ability to cause clotting that one could not have without the soft tissue laser.