This post is a guest post by Robert Milton. He blogs for Austin Dental Center, an Austin dentist, who specializes in mercury-free fillings and dental implants.
Dr. Jonathan L. Ferencz
In the fall of 2010, Apple, Inc., featured Dr. Jonathan L. Ferencz’s prosthodontics practice in one of its iPad in Business profiles, touting the numerous applications of the iPad in digital dentistry. In compelling detail, the profile outlined how Dr. Ferencz’s patients not only used the Adobe Ideas app to complete their intake forms electronically, but also engaged in leisure activities like checking email and surfing the Internet while in the waiting room.
The profile also described Dr. Ferencz’s use of the iPad to display photographs and x-rays to patients during consultations, emphasizing the device’s high resolution and zooming features.
And yet, Dr. Ferencz was by no means the first in his field to recognize the benefits of the device.
Dr. Mark Burhenne
Months earlier, in April 2010, family and cosmetic dentist Mark Burhenne DDS wrote on his blog, Ask the Dentist, about the iPad’s potential to advance dental care, using his experience with the device in his own office as a model.
In addition to the uses that would be mentioned in Apple’s profile, Dr. Burhenne highlighted the device’s ability to reduce radiation exposure and suggested that patients might one day be able to access their medical records online when they transfer from one dentist to another. He even argued that the presence of iPads decreased the severity of dental phobia by putting patients more at ease in the office.
New Developments: The DDS GP Treatment Plan
More recently, the DDS GP application has been developed as another way to improve the quality of dentist-patient consultations overall. According to DDSGadget.com, the program “has the Dentist and Patient collaborate to develop the treatment plan and schedule, based on clear imagery, real time, customized dialogue and a shared understanding.”
In other words, the software enables dentists to create a customized diagnosis and treatment plan on the device for each individual patient, complete with clear, easy-to-understand images that outline every step of the process. Dentists can choose from illustrations of over 160 diagnoses and treatments when creating a plan, which can then be emailed in PDF form directly to the patient and printed out for record-keeping purposes.
Conclusion
Newer and sleeker applications for the iPad are always on the horizon. However, as the technology becomes more sophisticated and more affordable with time, dentists will likely be drawn to the device as a real-world solution to many of the challenges they face in the industry today. From paperless record maintenance to waiting room entertainment value, one thing has been made crystal-clear: the iPad isn’t leaving the dental world anytime soon. It has far too much to offer.
Note by website owner
DDS GP is not cheap. It currently costs $399.99. http://www.ddsgp.com/DDSGP/DDS_GP_Yes.html
Here is a demo showing the application.
This is a great medical development.