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How Digital Dentistry Saves Lives Beyond Teeth · The Dental Edge

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Dental Edge, where clinical precision meets a cutting-edge approach to dentistry.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: In each episode, we bring you conversations with the best and brightest minds in the profession, diving deep into the latest clinical innovations and the intersection of technology in your practice.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Learn from some of the brightest minds in the field as they share invaluable insights to help you elevate your clinical skills and stay ahead in the ever-evolving world of dentistry.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a tech-savvy dentist ready to sharpen your edge, you're in the right place.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to another amazing episode of the Dental Edge Podcast, brought to you by the always reliable partners at Dental Learning.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: They really are the go-to source for educational development and continuing education in dentistry.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: If you haven't already, go check them out.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, absolutely.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: We're always grateful to Dental Learning for providing such professionally enriching and insightful learning materials, helping us, our listeners, and the dental community stay informed with the latest in dentistry.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Today's discussion begins with, you know, for most of us, sitting in the dentist's chair.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: It brings up a very specific set of expectations, right?
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, absolutely.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's usually a pretty standard routine, but we've all been in the chair.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Close your eyes and listen as you lean back, you open wide, and someone starts poking around with that sharp little metal hook.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the classic dental explorer.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: Not exactly everyone's favorite tool, you know, scary to even look at sometimes.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody's favorite.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, maybe the dentist or hygienist scrape a bit, maybe they find a cavity, they drill it, they fill it, and you go home.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's a highly localized, almost purely mechanical experience.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: You just go in to get your teeth fixed and really nothing more.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: That is exactly the traditional model for sure.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, for generations, the whole scope of a general dental visit was strictly limited to the mouth itself.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: Dentists were treating the teeth almost like isolated rocks in a wall, you know?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that makes sense.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Just fixing the broken pieces.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: It was a highly binary process, like a tooth is broken or it is injured.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: You have a cavity or you don't.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: The tools were mechanical, and the diagnoses were entirely based on what the human eye could see on the surface, or what a flat two-dimensional X-ray could reveal in the shadows.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, but then you step into the world of modern integrated digital dentistry, and that entire paradigm just shatters.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Suddenly, that sharp little hook is being replaced by tools functioning as an interconnected digital ecosystem.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's a massive, massive shift.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: And today we are exploring a shift so big that we aren't just talking about making prettier teeth or fitting a crown.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about dentists catching life-threatening brain anomalies before they happen.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, fascinating concepts and materials.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's a massive shift for sure, and ties in other healthcare considerations beyond the field of dentistry.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: We'll be unpacking some really incredible stuff.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: It is a profound leap, honestly.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: What we are witnessing is the evolution of dentistry from localized tooth repair to holistic interdisciplinary medical care.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: The modern dental practice is really becoming an early warning diagnostic center for the entire human body.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: We are exploring a super fascinating stack of material centered around a recent DEXIS webinar.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's titled, Expanding Patient Care Through Digital Dentistry: Clinical Perspectives and Best Practices.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, and the sources for this are just illuminating.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: We'll unpack some of the major insights and takeaways shared by the keynote speakers and dental professionals who are finding these successes in real-life dental applications.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: And our mission today is to uncover how the transition from old school physical impressions to seamlessly integrated digital environments using things like 3D imaging and AI is completely revolutionizing how a dentist works and how actual health outcomes and experiences change for you, the patient in the chair.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: Let's begin by setting the stage and introduce the panel of experts from this outstanding Dexys presentation, right?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, definitely.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: So first up, we have Jordan Reese.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: He's the senior director of clinical strategic development at DEXI.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: He's got over 20 years in the field, so he really brings that deep foundational knowledge of how the technology has evolved.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: Then there is Dr.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: Jeffrey Brockett, who is a radiologist with beam readers, who also runs a sleep medicine practice in San Diego.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: He's one who can really see how dentistry can connect the dots to other health systems for patients.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, which is such a unique and really crucial combination of specialties for what we're going to talk about today.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: And next is Dr.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: John Zilleschi, a general dentist in Denver who specializes in really complex prostodontics.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: He's the guy in the trenches dealing with those massive reconstructive cases day in and day out.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: And finally, rounding out the panel is Dr.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: Marco Brindis, a prostodontist and the former LSU chair in New Orleans.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: His insights on how severe dental issues connect to the rest of the body are just mind-blowing.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: So to really appreciate the magnitude of this shift, we first have to understand the baseline reality of how a dental office used to operate.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: And frankly, we know how some places still do.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, absolutely.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: In the webinar, our panel of dental experts spent a good chunk of time discussing the absolute labor of traditional dentistry.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, they were working with materials like reversible hydrocolloids.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: Just the phrase reversible hydrocolloids sounds like some sort of industrial chemical process.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: For anyone who hasn't had the pleasure, this is essentially that mussy, heavy, gag-inducing goop that gets shoved into your mouth in a metal tray when it's time to take an impression.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: It pretty much is.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: For patients, it isn't just unpleasant, but doesn't offer any clinical perspective.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: You know, from the clinical side, dealing with that material is incredibly tedious.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's super temperature sensitive.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: It has to be boiled, then tempered, then injected.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: And if the patient moves their jaw or swallows at the wrong time, well, the impression is ruined and you have to start all over again.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_02: Then once you finally get a good impression, the staff has to mix this heavy dental stone, pour it into the mold, wait for it to set, and then physically mail it to a lab.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: This takes days, if not weeks, right?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's just the physical models.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: The speakers also detailed the nightmare of traditional x-rays.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: Dr.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: Brockett shared this story about how many countless hours he used to spend literally sitting in a dark room, you know, just dipping film into chemicals.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: That is wild to think about now in today's digital age.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, or how a physical x-ray film had to be put into a little paper coin envelope and physically walked down the street to an endodontist for a referral.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: The physical infrastructure required just to capture and share diagnostic information was a massive, massive bottleneck back in the day.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: But in today's age, the panel highlighted how that entire physical infrastructure has been digitized through software platforms like DTX Studio.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: Jordan Reese provided a great technological perspective here.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: Instead of bouncing between a dark room, a physical model, and three different computer programs, DTX Studio acts as a single cockpit to streamline the process.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Let's unpack this a bit because the cockpit concept makes so much sense after it's compared.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: How does that actually work in practice?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Are they just dumping all these different files into one folder on a computer and letting the software do the rest?
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: No, it is far more sophisticated than just a simple folder.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: The software actually meshes the data together.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: So you have a 2D X-ray, then you have a 3D cone beam computed tomography scan, which we call a CBCT, and that is essentially a 3D X ray of the skull and the bone structure.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, got it.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: Then there is an interoral surface scan, which captures the exact topography and color of the gums and teeth.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: The software's engine takes that colorful surface scan and literally wraps it over the 3D bone scan, matching all the data points perfectly together.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, it creates the single highly accurate and fully navigable virtual clone of the patient's head right there on the screen.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: So the dentist can literally peel back the digital layers.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: They can look at the photo realistic smile, click a button to fade the gums away to see the jawbone, and then fade the bone away to see the nerve pathways underneath.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: Precisely.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: And because it is purely digital, Dr.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: Brockett noted that he can take that virtual clone of a patient in his San Diego office, push a single button, and seamlessly share it with a specialized dental lab in Spain, Toronto, or elsewhere around the globe.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: That is incredible.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: Those labs can open the file instantly and start fabricating a custom sleep appliance or a surgical guide an hour later.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: It completely removes the geographic barriers, as well as other healthcare crossover barriers.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: This sounds exactly like the transition from carrying a flip phone, a separate heavy digital camera, an MP3 player, and a folding paper map in your glove box to finally getting a smartphone where all the hardware is consolidated.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Let the apps actually talk to each other.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_02: That is a brilliant analogy.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: But if we connect this to the bigger picture, the overarching theme in the presentation seemed to be about what this efficiency actually buys the practice.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Right, because it's not just about the cool factor of the tech.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: The ultimate currency being saved here is time.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: Dentistry is a highly procedural, time-bound profession.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, a clinician might only have 45 minutes scheduled for a complex crown prep.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: We've both been there.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and time is money.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: If they are fighting with alginate dust or waiting for film to process, that is time stolen directly from the patient.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: By eliminating those physical bottlenecks, you might save 10 or 15 minutes per appointment.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: So if saving 10 minutes per patient is the operational win for the dentist, the real question is, what does the patient actually do with those 10 extra minutes?
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: Because it seems like it is in that window that the power dynamic completely shifts, doesn't it?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it changes everything.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: Those recovered minutes are reinvested into patient education and building clinical trust.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: Historically, you know, the dental visit was highly paternalistic.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: For sure.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: The doctor knew best and you just nodded along, right?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: The dentist would look at a tiny cloudy black and white film on a light box, point to a blurry shadow, tell you that you needed a root canal, and you just had to take their word for it.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: It required blind trust.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: But now you're sitting in the chair and you are looking at your own skull in high-definition color 3D.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and the numbers back up how powerful this is.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Dr.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Brindis from New Orleans handles these massive full mouth reconstructive surgeries.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: He shared a staggering metric about case acceptance rate.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: Early in his career, before he fully utilized these digital visualization tools, his case acceptance rate for large complex procedures was around 28%.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: Which makes sense because when you are quoting someone tens of thousands of dollars for a full mouth reconstruction, they are naturally going to be hesitant.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, that's a huge commitment.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: But once he started putting these 3D scans on the monitor and actually walking patients through their own anatomy, his acceptance rate skyrocketed to 55%.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: It basically doubled.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: The underlying psychology there is really fascinating.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: When a patient is verbally told they have severe bone loss or a massive hidden infection, it remains this abstract concept.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's hard to visualize.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it just sounds like scary medical jargon.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_02: But another panelist, Dr.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: Zaleski in Denver, shared a great philosophy on this.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: He noted that when a patient initially refuses treatment, that a no today is not a no tomorrow.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: Meaning they just need time to process the information?
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: Time to process, definitely.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_02: But more importantly, they need undeniable visual evidence to diminish their defensive reaction.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: When you can literally show a patient a 3D rendering of their jaw, rotate it on the screen, and point directly to the massive crater where healthy bones should be, the patient becomes a co-diagnostician in their own care.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they aren't being sold a procedure anymore.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: They are solving a puzzle alongside their doctor.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: The integration of artificial intelligence is acting as the ultimate co-pilot here.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: The software actually color codes areas of concern.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's almost like spell check for your bones.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: I love that phrase, co-diagnostici.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's a slightly terrifying visual, but I get it.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: It helps identify everything.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: A dentist might miss a really subtle shadow on a busy scan, especially at the end of a long day.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_02: But the AI puts a bright red bounding box right over the anomaly, which forces everyone to look closer.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: The experts pointed out that patients are so accustomed to AI in their daily lives now, using tools like ChatGPT, that seeing an AI act as an objective third-party and second opinion on their dental scan builds immense confidence.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: Patients feel informed rather than upsold.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: Let me push back on this for a second.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: I have to put myself in the shoes of the patient sitting in that chair.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: If I go in for a routine cleaning and the doctor suddenly throws a 50-inch three-dimensional rendering of my skull on the wall, complete with nerve canals and AI heat maps, I mean, I'm not enlightened.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm terrified.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't go to dental or medical school.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't this massive data dump just completely overwhelm the average person?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: That is a very real risk, yeah, if the technology is used poorly.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: But what's fascinating here is how the panel emphasized that the DTX Studio software is actively designed to filter out the noise.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: The technology simplifies the complexity by allowing the dentist to carefully curate the view and patient frame of mind.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: They aren't dumping raw, unfiltered medical data onto the patient.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: If the issue is, say, a single cracked tooth, the dentist can digitally crop out the rest of the skull, remove the bone layer, and just show that one specific tooth rotating in space with the crack highlighted by the AI.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: You are being guided through a highly customized, visually digestible story of your own health.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: So they aren't just showing everything at once.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so if the software makes the data digestible and the patient and doctor are looking at this curated visual story together, what exactly are they finding?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: Because the source material gets into some wildly extreme case studies where the tech jumps from basic dental care into holistic life-saving medical interventions.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, the discoveries are absolutely profound.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: Let's go back to Dr.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: Brindis in New Orleans.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: As a prostodontist, he is the guy people go to when their mouth is completely destroyed, and he noted a really critical hidden pattern in his work.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: Well, many of his most severe cases, these are patients who come in repeatedly shattering their expensive ceramic crowns and literally breaking their implants.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: They all share a common denominator that has absolutely nothing to do with weak teeth.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: The root cause is compromised airways.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: What kind of pattern?
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: Undiagnosed sleep apnea.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: When the airway collapses during sleep, the body panics.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_02: It fights for air, and one of the physical physiological responses to that panic is severe parafunctional habits.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Meaning they just can't breathe properly at night?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: Intense subconscious grinding of the teeth as the jaw essentially tries to thrust forward to yank the airway open.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: So by taking a 3D scan, Dr.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: Brindis isn't just looking at the broken tooth.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: He is measuring the actual volume of the patient's airway.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: He is diagnosing why the tooth broke in the first place.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like grinding, you mean?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: Precisely.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: You have to fix the foundation and address the root cause.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: So treating the broken tooth without treating the airway is just putting a bandage on a bullet hole.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: The tooth will just break again.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that case was incredible.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_02: Please share some more about it for our listeners.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: And speaking of extreme structural issues, Dr.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Zaleski in Denver shared this massive class 3 surgical case that honestly blew my mind.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: Happily.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: To give you a mental image, this patient had lost his teeth, and his jaw had collapsed so severely that his upper jaw tuberosities, which are the bony bumps at the very back of your upper palate, they were physically resting on his lower jaw's retromolar area.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_02: A structural collapse of that magnitude drastically alters a person's entire facial profile.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: Their face effectively just caves in on itself.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: And historically, trying to plan a surgery to fix that would involve immense guesswork and playing around with physical plaster models.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: The back of his upper jaw was touching the back of his lower jaw.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: Not at all.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: They seamlessly shared the patient's 3D digital clone.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_02: They were able to plan an orthognatic surgery, literally mapping out how to cut and reposition the jawbones in 3D digital space before they ever even touched the patient with a scalpel.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: But because Dr.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Zelleski and the oral surgeon were both working within that DTX Studio ecosystem, they didn't have to guess.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: Dr.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: Zaleski described the outcome as almost like plastic surgery from the inside out.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: By repositioning the foundation of the jaw, they completely restored the patient's soft tissue profile, their facial structure, and ultimately their dignity.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's just wild.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: This is life-changing work, but here's where it gets really interesting.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it really highlights how unpredictable this field can be.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: The most jarring example of this technology's power came from Dr.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: Brockett.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: He presented a case that started out incredibly routine.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: A patient came in simply looking for a sleep appliance, a mandibular repositioning device.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's basically a custom mouth guard designed to hold the lower jaw forward to stop snoring.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: Right, a totally standard procedure.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_02: You go in, they take a mold, you get the mouth guard.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: But Dr.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: Brockett used his 3D CBCT scanner to check her airway volume first.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: While he was scanning their airway, the machine also captured the surrounding anatomy of the skull, and what he found was terrifying.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was a massive shock.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: Upon reviewing the scan, he noticed something highly abnormal in her sinus cavity.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: Specifically, she had a hypoplastic right maxillary sinus.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: So hypoplastic essentially means underdeveloped.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: Her right sinus cavity hadn't formed properly, but you know, that wasn't even the alarming part.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_02: The alarming part was a distinct mass protruding down from her cranial cavity, plunging directly into that empty sinus space.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: Wait, a hypoplastic what?
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: What exactly does that mean for the patient?
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_02: Well, he caught what looked like a meningoencephalocal.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's a condition where a sack of brain tissue and fluid literally bulges through a defect in the skull.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: He immediately halted all dental treatment and referred her to an ear, nose, and throat specialist for an emergent MRI.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: A mass of brain tissue dropping down through the skull.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: It is a phenomenal catch, but we do need to provide some strict clinical context here regarding limitations and liabilities because the panel was very clear on this point.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_02: A 3D CBCT scan taken in a dental office is not a definitive medical diagnosis for something like a brain tumor, nor is it a formal diagnosis for sleep apnea.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: So they caught a potentially life-threatening neurological condition all because she went to the dentist to get a snoring mouth guard?
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: Indeed, the scan is an indicator, not a final medical diagnosis.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: Because sleep apnea still legally requires a monitored sleep study, correct?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's an early warning system.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's like taking your car in for a routine oil change, and the mechanic plugs a new diagnostic scanner into the dashboard, and the computer throws a code saying your transmission is about to drop out.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: The mechanic doesn't rebuild the transmission right there, but they flag it so you can get it to a specialist before it explodes on the highway.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: That is a perfect analogy.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: The technology forces modern dentists to look beyond the teeth and think interdisciplinarily.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: They really have to act as the primary triage point, collaborating with ENTs, sleep physicians, and neurosurgeons.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so doubling case acceptance by visually engaging the patient, saving critical operational time, and literally catching life-threatening brain anomalies.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: On paper, it seems absolutely obvious that every single dental clinic in the world should be running this digital ecosystem tomorrow.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_02: You would think so, yeah.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm putting myself in the shoes of a veteran dental assistant who has been mixing alginate goop for 20 years.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: If a doctor walks in on a Monday and says, We are throwing all that out and learning a completely new 3D AI software suite.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: That is the central hurdle of medical advancement, and the webinar panel did not shy away from it at all.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: The biggest barriers aren't the technology itself anymore.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: They are cost, human resistance to change, and inadequate training.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I am probably going to have difficulty.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: How does a clinic actually survive the friction of this transition?
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: Dr.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: Brockett admitted that the early days of digital dentistry were rough.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: Early intraoral scanners were massive, they were clunky, and they required a whole team just to hold the patient's cheeks back.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_02: But the hardware has advanced light years since then.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's the human element that really needs managing now.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: Right, you mean the human element?
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: And the consensus from the audience QA and the panel on managing that human element is to never train on the fly.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: If you try to figure out the scanner while the patient is sitting there gagging, everyone loses faith in the system.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: Dr.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: Zeleski explained that he transformed his clinic by creating rigid standard operating procedures, or SOPs.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: If a patient comes in for a crown, the workflow is locked in.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: X-ray, photo, preliminary impressions, scan every single time in that exact order so it becomes pure muscle memory for the staff.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: Dr.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: Brockett added a crucial structural tip for practices making that leap.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_02: Designate an internal champion.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_02: Don't just tell the whole staff to figure it out together.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: Pick one specific staff member and make them the absolute expert in capturing these digital images.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: That makes total sense.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: Routine kills the anxiety.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you have everyone doing it casually, you just get garbage data.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: You get motion artifacts because the patient moved, or someone types the patient's name wrong in the metadata, and that life-saving 3D scan gets lost in the server forever.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: Having one dedicated expert ensures the data going into the AI is crisp and perfect.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: Precisely.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: There is a deeply personal psychological benefit to embracing this shift too, which Dr.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: Brockett spoke very vulnerably about.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, before he fully leaned into continuing education in this digital ecosystem, he admitted he felt stuck in a massive rut at his general practice.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: He called it a groundhog day trap like the Bill Murray movie.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he mentioned feeling stuck, right?
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, but embracing this technology, learning to read complex 3D anatomy and collaborating on surgical cases, it broke that cycle for him.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: It re-engaged his clinical curiosity.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: It really made the practice of dentistry intellectually stimulating and fun for him again.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: It can for you too.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: The burnout in the medical field is so real.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean every single day feels the same.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: You poke a tooth, you fill a cavity, you mix the goop, you go home.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, but you know this raises an important question.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: I do have to wonder about the long-term impact of that AI co-pilot.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: If the software is getting so incredibly good at reading these scans, highlighting the bone loss and finding the hidden masses, won't clinicians eventually become overly dependent?
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's a valid fear for sure.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_02: That is the big ethical and operational question looming over all of healthcare right now, not just dental.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: The panel addressed it head on and the absolute consensus is this AI provides findings, not diagnoses.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: If the computer is doing the thinking, doesn't the human doctor eventually get lazy?
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: It is.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: The algorithms are incredibly powerful, but they are not 100% accurate.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: They can flag a shadow, but the human doctor must retain their clinical judgment to determine if that shadow is just an artifact of the scan or a real pathology.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_02: The doctor must always be the final arbiter.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's a key distinction very important to draw that line.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: Not at all.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, looking ahead to the next three to five years, Jordan Reese and our expert panel are incredibly optimistic about how AI will elevate the human staff.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: They foresee AI moving beyond just reading the images to actually coaching the capture process itself.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not about replacing the human in the loop at all?
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well imagine an AI acting as a real-time over-the-shoulder coach.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: If a dental assistant is positioning a patient in the 3D scanner incorrectly the AI will instantly recognize the postural error and prompt the assistant on the screen on how to adjust the patient's chin or spine to get the perfect scan.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: The Wait, really?
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: How would that work?
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: Well it can be an empowering tool not a replacement.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: That is wild.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: The machine is actively training the human to be better at their job.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: So to pull all these threads together what we've uncovered today is that taking a dental practice digital is fundamentally about breaking down the walls of the mouth.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's about creating a unified ecosystem that eliminates the physical bottlenecks of the past and utilizes the new technologies and systems developing.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, getting rid of the goop and the dark roots and moving into the light that digital dentistry can provide.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly and it's about taking those recovered minutes and visually empowering the patient, showing them their own anatomy so clearly that case acceptance naturally doubles.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: And most importantly it gives practitioners the diagnostic clarity to spot structural collapses and life-threatening systemic issues they otherwise would have completely missed.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: It represents a total elevation in the standard of care.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: It is a win for the operational health of the clinic, the intellectual engagement of the doctor, and ultimately the physiological commitments of the patient.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: As we wrap up today's episode, I want to leave you with one final slightly provocative thought to mull over.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: We've talked about how AI is currently flagging bone loss and airway issues on these scans, but as dental AI becomes increasingly sophisticated, how long until it starts connecting even broader dots?
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: Imagine a near future where you sit down for a routine 3D dental scan and the software automatically cross-references the microscopic bone density in your jaw with your entire genetic profile.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: A future where your dentist software predicts systemic diseases like early onset osteoporosis, cardiovascular issues, or autoimmune disorders years before physical symptoms ever manifest anywhere else in your body.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_02: It brings a whole new literal meaning to the ancient medical adage that the mouth truly is the gateway to the rest of the body.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: It really does.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: Next time you sit in that chair, lean back and open wide, remember, they are looking at a whole lot more than just your teeth.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for tuning in for today's episode of the Dental Edge podcast.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: We'd like to give another thank you to our fantastic authors today and our CE supporters at DEXIS and our expert panelists for sharing these valuable insights into expanding patient care through integrated digital dentistry workflows.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_02: That's for sure.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_02: We could not have reached these understandings without the cutting edge software and digital systems provided by incredible companies like DEXIS and without the invaluable resources of dental learning.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_02: It was a fantastic discussion really giving us all more to think about when it comes to digital dentistry and connecting the pathways of human healthcare.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely now that we have better knowledge of real world examples you can help more patients with precise clinical efficiency and confidence.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: We've explained how integrated digital imaging workflows support comprehensive diagnosis and treatment planning, how to identify best practices for implementing and scaling digital and AI assisted diagnostics within a practice and how we can apply strategies for improving patient communication and case presentation using digital tools.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I know now I'll be able to better recognize key factors for building a digital first team aligned practice culture and access opportunities to refine imaging and workflow processes to support improved patient outcomes.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: Spot on to check out this original webinar please visit www.dentallearning.net The incredible partners of dental learning provide many great conversations and CE resources to really help your practice evolve and stay informed.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: Keep exploring stay curious and we'll catch you all next time