Learn more about the X-era Dental Cone Beam from ImageWorks

ImageWorks has a long history of partnering with dental repair technicians, and other small independent dealers.  The reason is that they are smart, technical experts that are loved by dental professionals.  As a result, we have been helping dental repair technicians be very successful providing high-end imaging solutions to their customers. 

However, in all these years, we have also seen many dental repair technicians who would like to sell higher-end equipment, but are not successful.  While there could be many reasons for this, we see three main obstacles that frequently stand in their way.

First, their customers don’t think of them as a viable source. 

This may be because the decision-makers actually aren’t aware that the technician has access to the equipment.  Alternatively, the decision-maker may be aware that the technician has access to this equipment, but may doubt that the technician has experience providing these solutions.  In this case, if the office likes the technician as a service person, the decision-maker may pretend that they were not aware the technician provided this kind of equipment (so as not to hurt their feelings).

Second, the technician does not have the time to perform an effective sales process. 

It’s important to be clear what we mean here.  We are not talking about being “salesy”.  Furthermore, we are also referring to more than just providing technical expertise in the product (e.g. performing a demo) – as this is to be expected.  

Rather, we are referring to the ability to help the decision-maker on their journey to get to the right solution for them in an efficient manner.  This includes things like:

• Performing a needs assessment to connect their objectives with the right solutions
• Responsively providing multiple quotes with various scenarios
• Playing quarterback between other stakeholders in the process (Financing, IT, contractors, shielding inspectors, etc)
• Asking the right questions to help the decision-maker focus the decision while highlighting potential pitfalls
• Offering competent consulting that helps the office press the “easy button”.

Third, the technician is typically focused on filling their schedule with service appointments.  As a result, they don’t have the time to focus on the steps needed to avoid these obstacles.  It’s hard to provide quick-response consultative insight when you are elbows deep in the middle of fixing a compressor.

Unfortunately, as a result of these obstacles, the dental technician may grow frustrated, and decide to stop wasting their time.  The result is the dental technician ends up missing significant opportunities to expand their offerings and expand their business.

At ImageWorks, we have created a process that helps the dental service technician avoid these obstacles and have success winning business to provide high-end dental technology.  Whether you have a specific opportunity or just want to learn more details – we would love to show you how.

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Dental professionals know that there are correlations between dental health and overall health, and they know that when they are providing dental care for their patients – they are also caring for more than just their teeth.

However, are there different ways to communicate this linkage so that patients understand?  The New York Times recently published an article on this topic (“Why Oral Hygiene Is Crucial to Your Overall Health”), and we thought if might be useful to pass along some of the specific examples that might arm a dental professional with new ways to explain this correlation with their patients.

Here are some examples as key takeaways from the article:

• One of the most well-known connections is between dental health and heart disease. Research has shown that people with gum disease may be more likely to have heart disease, as the bacteria in the mouth can travel through the bloodstream and contribute to inflammation in the arteries or spread to different organs. By maintaining good oral hygiene habits, patients can help reduce their risk of heart disease and keep their heart in top shape.
• Another surprising connection is between dental health and pregnancy outcomes. Pregnant women with gum disease may be more likely to give birth prematurely or have babies with low birth weights. By taking care of their teeth and gums during pregnancy, women can help give their babies a healthy start in life.
• Poor dental health can also contribute to respiratory infections, as the bacteria in the mouth can be breathed into the lungs. In addition, people with osteoporosis may be more likely to have tooth loss due to bone loss in the jaw. By maintaining good dental health, patients can help prevent these and other health issues.

Of course, even posting this article in waiting may be a valuable step as the patient can see the topic in the popular press.

Cephalometric radiographs are most commonly needed for orthodontic treatment.  However, they can also be used for TMJ assessment, sinus evaluation and trauma to the jaw or skull.  A cephalometric scan captures both lateral and poster-anterior (PA) images of the entire skull, and these scans are most commonly used as part of orthodontic treatment to measure relative movement of anatomical landmarks.

Important Overlooked Questions When Buying a Dental Pan Ceph or Cone Beam With Ceph X-Ray Machine

Typically, the way you can tell that any panoramic x-ray or dental cone beam machine can capture cephalometric x-rays is if the unit has an arm sticking out to the side.

The purpose of this arm is to create distance between the source of the x-ray and the anatomy so that the field of view presented in the image is larger.  This is similar to a flashlight that faces a wall.  As you move the flashlight away from the wall, the circle of light gets bigger.  The patient is positioned at the end of the arm to capture the cephalometric image.  The industry standard is that the midsagittal of the patient should be 5 ft from the x-ray source, so the ceph arm will be designed to achieve this.

A small but really important component of the the pan ceph is called the secondary collimator.  A collimator is a general term for an opening that only allows x-ray through that is going to hit the sensor, and therefore play a role in creating the desired radiograph.  Any x-ray energy that would not hit this sensor is blocked by the collimator, and therefore shielded from the patient.  All dental x-ray machines have a collimator.  

However, with a dental ceph machine, because the patient stands farther away from the source of the x-ray (at the end of the ceph arm), there is typically another collimator found at the end of the arm.  It will typically look like a vertical flange with a slit down the middle, and it will sit between the patient and the source of the x-ray.  

Typically, a key part of aligning the ceph involves making sure that the primary collimator (near the source of the x-ray) is “aligned” with the secondary collimator at the end of the ceph arm.  A poorly aligned secondary collimator can affect the resulting image because it may be blocking some of the required x-ray that the ceph sensor requires to take a good ceph radiograph.

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We had a great discussion with Dr. Smith (her name has been changed for privacy), and she had just left a practice in Illinois and moved to the southeast to start her own practice.  The office she is leasing had some old equipment, but she had started from scratch.  Not a single patient.

She put her head down and started working, and 3 months in, she was starting to make traction.

Until a pipe burst.

Generally, the damage could have been worse, but there was one casualty: the panoramic x-ray.

So now she had a decision:  she knew that implants would eventually become part of the practice.  However, she had hoped she could build the cash flow to a more comfortable level before making that leap to the cone beam system from the old pano.

However, now she had to decide – should she invest in the cone beam now or just focus on replacing the pano and then look to the cone beam later on.

Now, there are lots of options here.  Buy a used pano to bridge the gap until she’s ready for the cone beam.  Get a new pano and then trade it in toward a new cone beam when she’s ready.  There isn’t one right answer for the individual, because besides the financial pros and cons, every dental professional has to honestly assess their own risk tolerance. 

However, here is one framework to think about the finances.

If the office knows they need a panoramic x-ray, the question becomes whether the cone beam will generate incremental income vs the incremental cost.   

So, to run these numbers, the typical cone beam is going to be about $30,000 to $45,000 more expensive than a similar quality panoramic x-ray.  These numbers will be less if they went with refurbished equipment.

Let’s use the higher end of the range of $45,000 of incremental cost.  If you were to finance this over 5 years, it would be about $850 per month of incremental cost.

So just based on the numbers, the question becomes: would the cone beam enable more than $850 of incremental production per month for the dental professional?

However, that’s not the end of the analysis – because every individual’s risk tolerance is different.  Many would say that the probability of increasing production above that $850 mark is very high – and feel the cone beam is the right decision.  However, others may look at this and say “What if I can’t generate that production?” and feel that the implications are too severe for them, even if it’s a low probability.

The numbers should lead the way when deciding on a significant investment.  However, there’s not a single right answer for any dentist – and the variable not to overlook is the risk tolerance.

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The Health Policy Institute of the ADA released the snapshot of their Dental Practice Economic Outlook for the month of March.  Every month they conduct a survey of dental professionals to gather all kinds of different variables.  

One key takeaway is that dentists’ confidence in the recovery of their practices over the next 6 months reaches its highest point in almost a year.  However, this confidence is still quite a bit below it’s peak in early 2021.

See the report here.

Learn more about the Eva Select sensors from ImageWorks