Digital X-rays

Digital scanning and impressions

Dental digital scanning/impressioning makes it possible for dentists to map their patient’s oral cavity. A digital scanner consists of a wand-like device that attaches to a cord on a computer. The computer has scanner software that helps provide the final result of the dental scan.

The wand is inserted into the patient’s mouth and glided across the bridge of the bottom and top teeth. As the scanner moves, the computer captures a digital impression of the patient’s oral cavity.

Benefits of digital scanning and impressioning

Patients can enjoy many benefits from this process, including:

• Less chair time.
• Improved quality of images for better-fitting restorations.
• Eliminates the need for uncomfortable and distasteful restoration materials that may cause gagging.
• Ensures more comfort and less anxiety for patients.
• Reduces the likelihood of errors and material inaccuracies.
• Storing impressions digitally makes it possible to keep them for a long time, saving space and ensuring efficient recordkeeping.
• Supports a paper-free environment and eliminates the need for disposable impressions and materials and plastic trays, making it eco-friendly.

Benefits of  Digital X-rays
Lanham Family Dental supports their dental practice design by incorporating digital dental x-rays for your treatment needs. Digital x-rays don’t just help the environment, they also provide you with a better diagnostic tool for uncovering the health of your teeth, mouth and bones. Digital x-rays provide your dentist with improved image quality while also reducing the amount of radiation exposure you come in contact with. Collecting your scans has never been easier or quicker than with digital x-rays. The information they render helps prevent serious conditions from developing or advancing. If it has been a while since you or a loved one has had x-rays taken, call our office today to book an appointment.

Digital Panoramic X-rays
Panoramic X-rays (also known as Panorex® or orthopantomograms) are wraparound photographs of the face and teeth. They offer a view that would otherwise be invisible to the naked eye. X-rays in general, expose hidden structures, such as wisdom teeth, reveal preliminary signs of cavities, and also show fractures and bone loss.

Panoramic X-rays are extraoral and simple to perform. A panoramic film is hidden inside a mechanism that rotates around the outside of the head.

A panoramic x-ray is not conducted to give a detailed view of each tooth, but rather to provide a better view of the sinus areas, nasal areas and mandibular nerve. Panoramic X-rays are preferable to bitewing X-rays when a patient is in extreme pain, and when a sinus problem is suspected to have caused dental problems.

Panoramic X-rays are extremely versatile in dentistry, and are used to:

• Assess patients with an extreme gag reflex.
• Evaluate the progression of TMJ.
• Expose cysts and abnormalities.
• Expose impacted teeth.
• Expose jawbone fractures.
• Plan treatment (full and partial dentures, braces and implants).
• Reveal gum disease and cavities.

If you have questions or concerns about panoramic X-rays, please visit Lanham Family Dental today!

Visit our office to determine whether digital scanning and impressioning is ideal for your specific oral condition and discover how this technology can help you save time.