Dr. Ryan Braden on Digital Smile Design
2022 we became a certified digital clinic. And what that really means is we are using all the
technological resources that are available through 3D scanning, 3D imaging through cone beam x-rays,
computer diagnostics, facial profiling. If someone wants to evaluate a new smile we can take a photo,
take some mineral scans, partner with our lab to create a digital smile and then from that digital
file we can 3D print a smile test drive, which is really a cool experience.
So a patient can come in, we can take videos, we can take photos of their
possible new smile live on their teeth and let them see side by side what it is today
versus what the potential is without ever having a drill touch their tooth,
without ever having any anesthesia. It’s very minimal cost. It’s a very economical way to to
see are we on the same page and is this going to achieve the results you’re looking for.
It’s one of the more fun things we can do because in a matter of two minutes we can take them from
their current smile and show them the future, show them what’s possible and then from there we figure
out how do we get from point A to point B and we’ll have a lot of those details worked out. But
this is where some of the advances in technology have really come to make dentistry, you know, just
more fun because we do a photo shoot with that and it’s supposed to be a fun experience and most
people just, you know, they’ll bring their spouse, they’ll bring significant others. Oftentimes
they request the photos afterwards because they’re like, I just want to share, I want to put this on
my Facebook page and I want this to be my smile and to show that possibility without the stress
or taking that blind leap of faith that, okay, I’m going to invest all these resources financially in
this time and possibly sit, you know, extended hours in a dental chair and hope that it looks
good in the end to eliminate that uncertainty and say, yeah, this is what it’s going to look like.
And because of the beauty of the technologies,
we can copy and paste the design to the preps, whatever we end up doing,
to make sure the end result mirrors what the test drive was. And if there’s something we
want to modify or change, it’s super easy to do. It’s all computer, just graphic design.
We tweak shapes, we can change the shades, we can do all these things on a computer without
the patient having to sit through a long, extensive dental procedure to
see really what is possible and what the outcome would look like before we start.
