It is essential that the dentist and dental technician work together effectively as a team. From a video and other visual footage, the dental technician receives significantly more information of the patient’s intraoral condition: movements of the lower jaw, resilience of the oral mucosa, smile line and color of teeth can easily be seen. In addition, the dentist has the possibility to get essential feedback from the dental technician. Video material and other visual footage enhance communication with the dental technician and a higher level of co-operation is reached resulting in improved patient satisfaction.
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Recently I have been using the Futudent EduCam for taking full arch pictures for treatment planning and documentation. I use the camera mounted on my loupes. I have noticed that this is a big benefit for me, because when something unexpected happens during the procedure it is immediately ready to use. Just by pressing the foot pedal I immediately take pictures of exactly what I see through my loupes. The pictures are directly stored on the computer from which I can copy directly to the patient files. If I compare this to the use of a hand held camera there are some advantages using Futudent: now I do not have to take off my gloves and stop the procedure in order to take the picture and then afterwards transfer the picture from the SD card to the computer. Additionally the digital camera is often not close by and I am usually too busy to set up the camera to take the pictures I need.
In many cases the lack of a proper oral hygiene has led to the need for a prosthetic treatment. The lack of motivation is often a result of the fact that the patient didn't understand the causal connection between the bad oral hygiene and present oral situation. That is the reason why for me, making a new crown, bridge or implant is not enough: the patient has to be involved in the treatment by learning, improving and sustaining their post-procedural hygiene.
The documentation routines of daily dentistry should be simple, clear and flexible: the details of patient specific findings and operations should be easily at hand any time. But is this the reality of an average dental practice of today?
As dental professionals, we all want better treatment plan acceptance. We know that an informed patient is more likely to accept the treatment we recommend and feel satisfied with the procedure. We also know the challenges: it's difficult to describe complex dental procedures to a patient with only words; we fear of talking about high value procedures; not to mention the awkwardness of being looked like a sales person instead of dental professional.
During the last four years I have been using my loupe mounted video camera to explain the oral hygiene instructions to my patients.
