I went to the dentist today for the first time in longer than I’d like to admit to. All-in-all, I got off pretty lightly. I need to get my old fillings replaced and I need a crown where one back tooth has broken off a bit around a filling. The dentist office though was really cool and a far cry from what I’d ever been to in the past.

It is fully networked. They have a digital x-ray machine and the shots go immediately into the computer. They can see right away if they have to redo a shot. There are LCD monitors mounted to the wall hooked up to a computer and you can watch a video while getting your teeth cleaned (Emma liked this part).

The monitors are tied into the computers that they use to take notes on and view x-rays. The dentist mirrored her work display up there while she was cleaning my teeth and I could see the diagram of my teeth and how her assistant was making notes about them as she went along. I remember the paper charts where my childhood dentist would write up notes on each tooth and it’s amazing the advances that I saw today. All of the record data is in the computer and tied together – x-rays, notes on specific teeth, general notes on visit, reminder to make sure I take my premeds (antibiotics because I have a heart murmur) – a really cool setup.

The really cool thing though is at the end, when she was talking to me about the work that they’d need to do and explaining about how some of my teeth have fracture lines because the old fillings don’t bond well to the tooth and generate additional stresses, she pulled out a camera in a large pen form factor. She switched the video screen over to take the camera as input and proceeded to show me images of my teeth in real-time as she pointed out the various things that were wrong and needed work. It has got to be the coolest dental visit I’ve ever been to.

Oh, and the dentist was really nice too!

So, if anyone in the Tri-Valley area is looking for a new dentist, I can highly recommend one.