Dental profession thriving due to technology and workforce advancements
Driven mostly by technology advancements and an evolving workforce, the dental profession is experiencing changes that some local dentists believe are going to streamline their practices and make it easier for patients to get dental work done.
Mark Marion, owner and founder of Marion Smile Center in Zelienople, said advancements in his profession every year are making things easier for both dentists and patients.
“There's never been a more exciting time to be a dentist than right now,” said Marion, who opened his practice in 1986. “I think the overall dental industry is in great shape. I think more and more people are looking to have a beautiful smile.”
Marion said digital impressions, internal cameras, cone beam machines, 3D printing and artificial intelligence are just some of the “exciting” things he is seeing at his practice and industrywide.
A cone beam machine serves as an MRI, Marion said, and does much more than a typical X-ray can do.
“It gives us a three-dimensional look of an area,” Marion said. “When you take an X-ray it’s just two dimensional. You can see the extent of a lesion or cancer or something like that. In an X-ray a lot of times you can't tell.”
Marion hopes machines such as a cone beam will help him and other dentists catch conditions at an earlier stage and prevent them from getting worse.
Paul Keelan, owner and founder of Keelan Dental which has locations in Butler and Middlesex Township, also said that traditional two-dimensional X-rays often are challenging to obtain a full diagnosis.
“I tell patients it’s like you’re reading shadows and trying to make an interpretation of the those shadows,” Keelan said.
Artificial intelligence technology for the dental profession is in the early stages, Keelan and Marion agreed.
This can involve plugging in a patient’s medical data into an algorithm along with some other steps.
“The software will take the X-ray and diagnose the care,” Keelan said. “It's not here yet, but it’s something that is being talked about.”
Another piece of technology becoming commonplace within the profession is 3D printing, which is used mostly to create dentures.
Keelan said at his practice they will take a scan of a patient’s mouth, make a mold and send it to a lab which, in turn, will print a set of dentures made from different types of FDA-approved resin.
“Instead of everything being handmade, it's digitally made dentures,” Keelan said. “We call the lab and say, for example, Ms. Smith lost her dentures, can you print another one? Then a day or two later you have them ... compared to the old days, the patient would come in and get impressions and then it would take six to eight weeks to get the dentures made the old way.”
Advancements in gum disease treatment have come a long way according to Marion, who said his gum therapy program has been active.
Marion takes a sample of someone’s saliva and sends it to a lab where it is put under a microscope to see motility and type of bacteria that could be in someone’s mouth.
“That’s an indication of gum disease,” Marion said. “That allows us to then inform the patient they have gum disease with some bad bacteria in there.”
“It allows us to make what we do for the patient just for them,” Marion added. “Not everybody needs the same thing. Sometimes we have to give them antibiotics.”
Marion said dental health and snoring are more related than most people think.
Marion recommends SureSmile, which are aligners that can allow better air flow while sleeping.
“Snoring is caused by the mandible falling back and the tissue relaxes and you end up snoring,” Marion said. “The appliances keep the mandible forward to keep that airway open and you’ll be less likely to snore.”
Finding the next generation of dentists is proving to be a little worrisome, Keelan said. Although there many students still are graduating from dental school, finding the right people sometimes is tough.
“I think industrywide it's a challenge to find quality people,” Keelan said. “We mostly will hire someone that fits our culture that is hardworking, likes people and is enthusiastic.”
Training those quality people falls under the realm of Marnie Oakley, dean for the School of Dental Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.
Oakley said the school’s enrollment numbers are steady, with about 2,200 applicants per year.
Understanding general social norms are what Oakley said students struggle with the most these days. The school helps students with this by paying actors to role-play situations a student may find in a dentist’s office, such as giving bad news or explaining a diagnosis.
“It’s completely uncharted for them,” Oakley said. “They get together with this actor patient and practice. The thought is it's a safe environment, and they get to step through it.”
Oakley said today’s students leaving the school are more technology savvy than previous ones.
They get to practice with the latest technology, which already is commonplace according to Keelan and Marion.
“In education it’s important that we understand we have an obligation to expose our students to what they may see after they graduate,” Oakley said. “I don't want them to learn things for the first time related to technology outside our institution.”
Oakley said educators must find the “sweet spot” when it comes to preparing their students for technology they will find in the field.
This can be an issue when it comes to medical records, which for the most part are all digital, but some dental practices might not have adapted.
Oakley said some students have struggled after leaving school because they were taught how to use digital medical records, not the traditional method of paper record keeping.
Despite this, technology advancements are part of the norm within the profession, which are designed to help bring a bright smile to patients in a more efficient manner.
“Having some AI, some machine technology, digital printing and scanning has allowed us to shorten appointments and shorten the amount of times you're in the dental chair,” Oakley said.
This article originally appeared in the November edition of Butler County Business Matters.
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