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How Alencar Family Dentistry is Using Technology to Improve Patient Experiences
Doctor Jayme Oliveira, the founder of Alencar Family Dentistry and lead dentist, strives to do everything he can to make his patients feel like members of his family. And what better way to treat family members than to help them maintain good oral hygiene by using the latest technologies available in dentistry?
“It’s a very exciting time to practice dentistry right now with all the technology that has been happening, especially in the last decade with the development of digital dentistry,” says Dr. Oliveira. “It’s definitely a cool time to be a dentist.”
Some of the equipment that Dr. Oliveira and his team are using includes scanners that take precise images of teeth to create better fitting, more natural feeling prosthodontics such as crowns, bridges, and bite guards. He also has a milling machine onsite that can cut a block of porcelain to make crowns right in the office, rather than shipping a mold off to a lab, sending a patient home with a temporary crown, then have them come back a week or two later for another appointment to be refit with a permanent crown.
Other technology offered by Alencar Family Dentistry includes:
• An onsite 3D printer to rapidly produce bite guards and other oral fixtures
• A cone beam CT, which provides detailed 3D images of the mouth, head and jaw that can be used to diagnose any problems in the bones when recommending dental implants
• Dental lasers that can be used to treat gum issues, and can cut bone and even the tooth structure
• A robotic “arm” that is used to place dental implants, especially in difficult places that would otherwise make the procedure difficult for the dentist and uncomfortable for the patients.
“When dental scanners were introduced 15 years ago or so, they weren’t very accurate,” says Dr. Oliveira. “The images we can get today are much more precise. It’s as precise as an impression we can get using that gooey stuff that no one likes, so no more of that! You just take an inter-oral picture and you get an impression that’s as good, if not better, of the area where a crown or something is going to go. It only takes about a minute-and-a-half to do a full scan, and the information is sent directly to the milling machine or 3D printer for faster results.”
Another piece of technology Alencar Family Dentist provides that’s not very commonly used in Hampton Roads is a centrifuge machine that can spin a patient’s own blood, and the blood cell concentrate can be added to surgical areas during reconstruction or surgical implants.
“It’s way more pleasant for the patient,” says Dr. Oliveira. “The swelling is lessened, the pain is lessened, and there is less chance of infection, which keeps patients more comfortable during recovery.”
Alencar Family Dentistry
711 Greenbrier Parkway,
Suite 101
Chesapeake, VA 23320
(757) 546-0301
alencarfamilydentistry.com
