Episode 459: Why the Time is Now to Invest in Intraoral Scanning

You're listening to The Dr. Phil Klein Dental Podcast
Welcome to the show. I'm Dr. Phil Klein. It is reported that over half of all dentists have
already made the switch to digital impressions. The question is no longer if a practice will adopt
intraoral scanning, but when. Today we'll be discussing why the time is now to invest in intraoral
scanning. Our guest is Angela Severance, a registered dental hygienist and certified dental
assistant. She has over 15 years of expertise in CAD CAM dentistry as an implementation specialist
and success manager. Angela, it's a pleasure to have you on Dental Talk. Thank you, Phil.
Yeah, pleasure to be here. So this is definitely an important topic because of the trend that's
going on right now in dentistry. There's no question that we're moving away from those goopy
materials into digital scanning. To start the podcast, tell us what the return on investment looks
like when utilizing a digital scanner. And I know you have a lot of experience with VivaScan,
which, by the way, has no association with Viva Learning. I'll put that disclaimer out there. Tell
us what the ROI is in general, and then we can get into more details about VivaScan. Yeah,
absolutely. So I think that it's definitely a misnome that... there is no ROI with an iOS system,
whether it's VivaScan or any other scanner on the market. But I find that to be false.
When you really take into consideration the amount of material that you use, most dentists,
if you ask them how much they spend on impression material annually, they probably can't pull that
number out. They're going to have to go to their reseller partner to actually have that looked up.
And when you start to... the impression material, the trays,
the adhesive for the trays. Let's talk second impressions. How many times do you take that second
impression when you take a look and there's a pull or a void or a tear in that analog impression?
And an actual analog impression is anywhere from $18 to $35. per impression.
So if you're doing that times two, three, four, just depending on if it's up or lower, or if it's
just simply, you know, just taking that second impression, those dollars start to add up quite a
bit. They say like on average, an office can spend around six to $8,000 per clinician on dental
impression material per year. So we, you know, and that doesn't seem like a lot, but when you start
to add that up over the years and now, now let's talk about. the other roi factor of ios comes down
to remakes and and this is something nobody really talks about in in the dental industry is when
you have a remake what does that actually cost an office a clinician the remake in an office so not
only do we have patient dissatisfaction because the patient's coming in for a zero dollar
production appointment right a seat appointment is 30 minutes of dentist quote unquote, restorative
time with zero production dollars. So we've got that overhead plus the assistant.
And now we have the patient's expectations that they're getting the crown, which is not going to be
seated today. They're going to have to be re-temporized. They're going to have to be anesthetized.
So we're talking another anesthesia. We're talking, what about the laboratory? Who's going to pay
for that remake? Is the dentist going to pay for that new crown? Is the lab going to comp it? So
we've got a lot of cost factors into an actual remake. And so even if a doctor said,
hey, you know what? I have, you know, maybe a half a dozen remakes a year. Okay.
A remake can cost an office $1,000. Easy. per remake so now that's an additional six thousand
dollars on top of what they're already spending on impression material so um iva claire actually
has an ROI calculator that we use that incorporates the remakes,
the impression material, lab reduction costs when you're sending via digital versus analog.
So there's a lot of cost savings when you switch. Yeah, I was going to ask you that. So typically,
what are you looking at as far as a timeframe to get the money back and based on what you just
said? Oh my gosh, you get back in a year. Easy. Yeah, I mean, easy.
I think for a general practice, you could regenerate that income just based off of impression
material, remakes, time savings, patient satisfaction, you know, and patient word of mouth to,
you know, get new clients, you know, to get new patients into the chair easy within a year.
So also there's a stress factor that's been removed, right? Because what I've heard from some
dentists is that they actually do two scans. They'll do one scan and then they'll, even if they
like it, they'll do another. Do they send them both to the lab? Is that typical? They can. I think
that's probably just us type A clinicians. Less is more,
but when you transition, it is difficult. I've worked with different dentists that take two
impressions regardless if the first one's perfect, just to see if the next one can be. And that's
something that's really different with digital impression is that you don't... is never a second
impression. Like what you get is what you get. You can look at it. You can erase part of it, adding
new data. Right, yeah. So when it comes to the technology itself, and some of us are more adaptable
to new technologies than others, it is a bit disruptive to get into the workflow of someone who's
typically using traditional impression materials. So tell us about that implementation process. And
if you want, you can use VivaScan because I know, as I mentioned, you're very familiar with that
particular iOS. Yes, yeah, I am. And I've been doing CAD chem dentistry since 2006.
So very well versed in many scanners. VivaScan is a scanner of my choice.
When you are incorporating digital dentistry into your practice, it is so grossly different than
analog that I like to say that there, yes, there's a learning curve,
but we turn that learning curve into a confidence curve. And that's something that I think Ivoclar
does. really, really well at. In fact, great. That differentiates us in the marketplace with
VivaScan is that offering proactive post-sales support. So I would highly encourage our listeners
to make sure that you've got support and education when you are incorporating digital into your
practice because it is so different. I use very nerdy...
uh you know analogy but it's like you know using you've got a new tv and you're trying to use your
old remote it just doesn't work that way right like you've got this these old habits uh that that
have worked in the past and you're very comfortable with them but now you've got this new
technology this new tv you you need to learn how to use the new remote and it's the very same thing
so is there a transition period absolutely are there other scanners on the market that take longer
to integrate into your practice one thousand percent um so i would i think that that's where
ivaclar has gone above and beyond um with vivascan is making sure that our users are successful um
that we we want to make sure that when you incorporate digital into your practice that it's going
to stay digital i think it's very easy for us as clinicians you know being whether we're five years
out of dental school 25 years out of dental school you know we can do things in our sleep and to be
able to just Give up quickly. You know, when digital is it's hard, like it's hard to do something
we're not good at. Nobody likes to not be good at something. So to have to just go, oh, forget it.
I'm just going to quick reach for the impression material. Yes, that happens. But that's where I
think that when you're looking at incorporating digital dentistry, that you really need to focus on
the education and support so that you can implement it seamlessly into your practice.
Because once you go digital, you'll never look back. You can't even imagine. Yeah, and Ivoclar
provides... for the staff as well, I assume. Absolutely. I mean, and in fact, that is my role,
Phil, is I'm the customer success manager for Ivoclaris Chairside Digital Solutions. It's in my
passion. I'm a dental assistant. I learned the hard way. I struggled through implementing digital
into my practice. So I know I'm empathic that way. I understand exactly what they're going through.
Just like we're doing on this podcast, I can actually live log into their system and I can watch
them scan and give them verbal cues and feedback in real time while they've got a patient in the
chair. And when you have that kind of support, you're guaranteed success.
Let me ask you this. So we talked about ROI. What about growing revenue in the practice using a
scanner? The way that I like to look at it is every scanner is picked up right now as a restorative
solution. everyone's marketing a digital scanner as a restorative solution, right? Like what am I
going to scan? I'm going to scan for a prep. I'm going to scan for a partial. I'm going to scan for
clear aligners. What about looking at a scanner as an actual diagnostic solution in your practice,
making sure that your hygienists have that in their hands so that when that new patient presents,
I've got a full clear view. I've got the patient in real time in,
you know, as they presented in my practice. I can take HD photos. VivaScan, in particular,
like many other on the market, can take HD intraoral photos. Now I've got the patient in the chair.
I've got their mouth up on the screen. I've got my HD photo. I'm showing them the leaky amalgam,
the crack in the tooth. And then all of a sudden, it's emotional. The patient can see, like,
this is my mouth. Oh, my goodness. Case acceptance is definitely effective for the positive.
Yes, I cannot emphasize that enough. For those doctors near retirement, they've been doing it the
old-fashioned way forever, and they're experts in using the traditional impression material.
Why should they invest in an intraoral scanner at this point in their career? Well, it's, I mean,
to draw in associates, to draw in that new, you know, the buyer. In dental school now,
it's not an alternative. It's not an extra career. curricular part of their dental school
experience. It is part of it. Every dental school has some form of digital. And so you've got these
students coming out. They grew up with digital. They're looking for digital. So I think it's a nice
marketing tool to draw in those new associates to take over as well as just.
You know, like being able to offer and keep up with, you know, I don't like to use the word
standard of care, but I mean, that's really where we're headed, right? Is, you know, if you're not
doing digital x-rays at this point. wow, you know, I wouldn't go to your practice. It's going to
be the same thing with digital, you know, with iOS, with internal scanning system. So that's how
I'd encourage the clinicians that are really comfortable. I get it. You know, you don't need to
necessarily go there, but let's do that for our patients, for our standard of care and to draw in,
you know, potential associates and new buyers. Yeah, it certainly would make the transition into a
new. practice owner, a younger person who's starting their career, it'd make that transition a lot
easier. And then, of course, you have to compete with the other offices that do have it as far as
selling that practice. Well, Angela, it's been very, very interesting to hear your perspective and
very informative on digital scanning. You certainly know a lot about this. You're very passionate.
So we appreciate you joining us today on Dental Talk. And thank you very much for your insight. And
we will see you on another webinar soon and podcast. All right. Thank you so much, Phill.