Like any industry with a focus on technology, dentistry has grown by leaps and bounds over the last two decades. While some dental practices have chosen to ignore the influx of high-tech dental instruments, Sundance Implant and Periodontal Center in Provo, UT, fully embraces the use of progressive developments in advanced dental technology. From multi-stage full mouth restorations with state-of-the-art implants to laser gum disease treatments and oral plastic surgeries, technology is at the front and center of everything we do.
But we don’t use technology just for the sake of using technology. Every technological addition we put in place at our Provo, UT office is centered around improving the patient experience and making advanced dental treatments and procedures as efficient, comfortable, and pain-free as possible.
As one of Utah’s only board-certified periodontists, one of Dr. Jason Nicholson’s specialties is in laser gum disease treatment. Unlike traditional cut-and-sew treatments for gum disease, modern high-tech lasers are 100% non-invasive, and can instantly eliminate hard-to-treat bacterial pockets. Dr. Nicholson is also a specialist in full-arch dental implants, in which cutting-edge digital intraoral scanners and 3D facial scanners are used to make the implant process completely accurate, streamlined, and customizable.
The 3D facial scanner is one of the tools we use at Sundance Implant and Periodontal Center to allow for a fully digital workflow, even for advanced multistage procedures such as dental implants and oral plastic surgery. Used in combination with integrative computer software, a 3D facial scanner provides Dr. Nicholson with an exact digital replica of each patient’s unique dentition and oral architecture. This digital rendering of the dentition allows our team to fully customize all our procedures with a previously unattainable level of speed, precision, and patient comfort.
Intraoral scanners are another tool that vastly improves the patient experience. Used to create digital impressions of a patient’s upper and lower oral arch, intraoral scanners are a game-changing technological advancement that is used to replace the painful, time-consuming, uncomfortable putty-based bite impressions that are used to make prosthetic tooth restorations.
Our Dexis scanner is a portable, handheld X-ray machine that allows Dr. Nicholson and our team to perform faster, more accurate, and far more detailed images of the patient’s oral arch. The improvement in detail translates to better end results, whether we’re performing a soft tissue grafting procedure, a simple cosmetic treatment, or full-mouth dental implants. The Dexis scanner allows Dr. Nicholson a previously unattainable freedom and ease of use compared to traditional wall-mount X-ray machines.
Pulsed lasers have truly revolutionized oral soft tissue and gum disease treatment in the periodontal landscape. Our Nd:YAG laser allows us to clean and disinfect bacteria-laden periodontal pockets with an astonishing level of speed, accuracy, and safety. Dr. Nicholson uses the laser to treat severe late-stage gum disease, and in just a single session patients can experience clean, healthy gums that are free of bacteria and inflammation. The laser also has coagulant properties which vastly diminish bleeding both pre-and post-treatment.
Used primarily to make temporary restorations for dental implant patients, our RapidShape 3D printer is a state-of-the-art device that allows Dr. Nicholson and our implant team to fabricate and install new prosthetic teeth for implant patients in record time – often on the very same day of surgery. This equates to less pain and waiting time, and better-fitting temporaries for patients that are investing large amounts of time and money into a handcrafted, brand-new smile.
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) are advanced oral therapies that can tremendously speed up healing time after an invasive dental treatment (such as periodontal treatment or dental implants). Platelets are small cells found in the blood; when platelets contact the air, they reduce clotting and galvanize the action of natural compounds (called growth factors) that speed up the healing process and promote accelerated regeneration of the oral soft tissue.
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