"Patients feel like we're making better decisions together..."

We had always used traditional radiography, complete with processor, chemicals and film. As a practice, we realized we were ready to move up to the next level, and our Patterson rep suggested digital radiography.

I had the opportunity to go and look at the system and it seemed like the right thing to do and the right time to do it. We had the money to refit the operatories with computers and officially move our office into the future. And, to be completely honest, no one really felt like cleaning the processor or dealing with the chemicals anymore. So it was a good move on multiple levels.

Why CDR Elite?
Our Patterson rep was someone who I trusted immensely. He explained the details behind Schick’s CDR Elite, how great it was and that it would work well with Eaglesoft. What really sealed the deal for me, though, was the fact that we could replace the cord. There’s always this nagging fear that after spending all this money on a new piece of equipment, you or a staff person might break it. With the CDR Elite, every sensor comes with an extra cord that you can easily replace. If something did go wrong, I didn’t have to throw a $10,000 sensor in the trash. Instead, I felt like I was getting double the sensors for my money.

Has this product increased your clinical confidence?
We’ve realized that in addition to patients being impressed, we were becoming better diagnosticians which, in turn, helped improve production since we were finding things that we hadn’t been able to catch before. And, as a GP who does a lot of endodontic procedures, digital radiography has been very helpful in accurately determining canal lengths using Eaglesoft so that I can get to the end of every apex without an apex locator.

The biggest change, though, is that I feel more confident that I’m not missing things. When you look at a little tiny X-ray, many dentists fall into the bad habit of saying, “Let’s watch it.” The film is 1” x 1.5”. Now, on the computer screen, it’s big and you can invert the image to a negative, you can change the color of it, and the brightness can be easily manipulated using Eaglesoft-no more holding films up to the light. You can see where that decay goes into the dentin and you know it’s not “a watch”- it’s something you take care of. I don’t promote dentistry that isn’t needed, but I’m not saying, “Let’s watch it,” as much. Patients are impressed. They feel like we’re making a better decision together.