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June 10, 2009 | dlpmagazine.com
web exclusive

Talking tech

Cautious nature takes back seat to patient
care when investing in technology.

By Richard Palmer

It’s no secret that dentists by nature tend to be conservative, especially when it comes to making capital investments in equipment. Yet, even in these difficult economic times, dentists are still keeping an eye on advancements to help optimize their patient care as well as their overall practices.

According to a March 2009 technology survey¹ of GPs conducted by Dental Products Report, 28.0% of clinicians describe themselves as “conservative, wait-and-see” in terms of incorporating new technologies into practice, which represents a increase from the 22.4% in a similar DPR survey² from May 2007. On the other end, the percentage of clinicians who label themselves as “technophiles, early adapters” dropped from 24.4% in 2007 to just 14.5% this year. The percentage of clinicians who feel they are “cautious, but curious and open” to new technologies remained fairly steady with a modest rise to 57.3% from 53.3% two years earlier.

As newer and better technologies enter the clinical dental marketplace and are proven in daily practice, dentists are looking beyond just price when considering high-tech equipment. The vast majority consider patient care to be the top priority, while the need to keep up with colleagues tracks way down at the bottom of factors. That’s not to say that clinicians are not watching the bottom line when it comes to investing in technologies, with more than two-thirds (69.4%) indicating that return on investment is a very important factor.

And just what are clinicians most interested in, tech-wise? Digital x-ray equipment, which has become more affordable and accessible to smaller practices, was high on the list with 17.1% of surveyed clinicians planning to buy a new or upgrade an existing digital intraoral sensor-based x-ray system and an additional 10.7% looking at a comparative extraoral system.

Also showing impressive attraction for clinicians were treatment room computer hardware and computerized shade matching systems (both 13.9%), digital impression-taking and caries detection devices (both 9.8%), and intraoral video and digital still cameras (8.9% and 6.6%, respectively).

In addition, 4.3% of clinicians stated that they planned to purchase/upgrade a chairside CAD/CAM system (on top of the 15.4% who already own the technology). The recent launch of the D4D’s E4D Dentist chairside CAD/CAM brings competition to Sirona’s CEREC system—long the only available operatory CAD/CAM system—and could show that dentists are just as leery of two in-office CAD/CAMs as they are of one; though both system do incorporate an intraoral digital impression capture technology that allows sending digital prep data directly to labs for design and fabrication, freeing the practice from these steps in the CAD/CAM process.

While many of the technologies owned by clinicians can be considered general-purpose office equipment (computer hardware and software, high-speed Internet access), several others ranked highly by dentists are specifically for direct patient care (LED curing light, digital x-ray, telescopic loupes, air abrasion for cavity prep). In addition, certain technologies used by the majority of respondents have communication aspects for sharing case information with laboratories working on the restorations (digital still camera, digital impression-taking device, high-speed Internet access).

Of the 70.2% of respondents who have operatories equipped with computers/monitors, more than three-quarters (76.7%) indicated that this has influenced their daily appointments/treatments.