While technology, thus far, is no replacement for the human brain or our abilities, it can be a useful tool to help enlighten our talents. We have not yet reached the point in the dental field where a robot can clean your teeth or perform a filling, but we do have technologies that help us perform those tasks. Anyone who has had a cleaning and exam at our office has been both physically and visually expected for cavities (or what we call them, Caries). The human eye is an amazing part of the body. Only recently has technology progressed enough to replicate human sight in devices such as film and digital cameras. Recently our office invested in a new type of dental intraoral camera. Since 2002 our office has had a digital camera, however, resolutions have greatly improved, along with other types of features, including “caries detection”. Our new camera is called a SoPro Life manufactured by Acteon. This camera allows us to see clear, crisp images from 30mm to 0 (Macro Mode). Paired with our new Apple iMac computers, our team can clearly see any defects or issues with a patients teeth. The “caries detection” mode is what we are most excited about. While x-rays, visual, and physical exams can give us a pretty good idea if a tooth has decay, the intraoral camera in caries mode helps us further by highlighting suspected decay. While this is by no means a replacement for years of experience or x-rays it is a tool to help us better diagnose a cavity. Furthermore, for the first time we can show you what we are seeing. We do our best to never under or over diagnose a patient, and we hope that this camera will further help us to continue this practice. Another reason for the camera has to do with your insurance. Insurance companies are increasingly looking for reasons not to pay for your dental procedures. With this camera and our Viive Mac dental software, we can submit the photos we take as proof to the insurance company with your dental claims. We are always looking for ways to provide the best dental care for our patients. Thank you for following our blog posts and keeping connected with us. Our next blog post will be on Apple products in our office!
 Mode I – Healthy tooth: Homogeneous green signal of fluorescence sent by the healthy tooth. |  Mode II – Infected tooth: Red/dark signal of fluorescence sent by the infected tooth. |
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