Home / Technology
Equipment, and why
Technology is only
interesting when it
changes the result.
Every practice lists its equipment. The question worth asking is what each machine actually removes from your experience — a second appointment, a tray of impression material, or a guess about where the nerve runs.
Why people come here
- Surgery and the finished teeth done by one dentist, under one roof
- Diplomate of the International Congress of Oral Implantologists
- Fellow of the Misch Institute — and faculty at its successor
- A written, itemized plan before anything is scheduled
What we use
Four things, and what each one is for.
3D cone beam imaging
A conventional x-ray flattens a three-dimensional jaw onto a single plane. A cone beam scan shows bone width, the position of the nerve canal and the floor of the sinus — the three things that decide whether an implant plan is safe. The practice has used i-CAT 3D scanning for years.
CEREC same-day restorations
For suitable cases the crown is designed and milled in the practice while you wait. One appointment instead of two, no temporary crown to come off over a weekend, and no second injection. Dr. Patellis is recognized nationally for this work.
CAD-CAM design
The finished tooth is designed in software before anything is made. For implant cases that means the implant can be positioned to serve the restoration rather than the other way round — the step that quietly decides how a case looks in five years.
Digital records
Scans, photographs and imaging that can be duplicated, measured and compared over time, so a change in bone level around an implant is something you measure rather than something you remember.
The honest version
None of it substitutes for judgment.
A scanner records what is there. It does not decide whether an implant should go there, how the bite should be organized, or whether a tooth that is technically restorable is actually worth restoring. Those are judgments, and they come from having seen the same situation many times — which is the argument for the training rather than the equipment.
What the equipment does is remove avoidable error: the guess about bone width, the distorted impression, the crown that was a shade off and had to go back to the lab. That is worth a great deal, and it is not the same as worth everything.
Start with an exam and a straight answer.
A consultation includes an examination, 3D imaging and a written, itemized plan. If implants are not the right treatment for you, Dr. Patellis will say so and tell you what is.