Intraoral Scanner

What is your most traumatizing dental experience? For many of us it is one of those ooey-gooey, messy molds of teeth taken in order to produce some sort of an orthodontic appliance, thumb habit crib, dental crown, mouthguard or space maintainer. Did you ever feel like the goop is going down your throat? Maybe that’s your most vivid memory of having braces, Invisalign, or getting a crown on one of your teeth. 

If so, then we have great news for you and your kids! At Dr. Lindhorst’s second location, Heights Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics, we use a scanner called an iTero Intraoral Scanner that takes thousands of photos of your teeth (6,000 per minute to be exact) and makes your teeth impressions digital! The scanner takes only photos so no radiation is involved in the process and the scan is completely painless and atraumatic. 

Once your teeth are digitized, we can send the image to respective labs to develop appropriate appliances for you or your kids. We send them to Invisalign to fabricate aligners for our orthodontic patients or to a lab to make other appliances such as expanders or habit cribs. Labs love having this digital image as it allows them to manipulate the image and make the appliances in less time and with much better fit and accuracy than with the older method. 

The scanner is a great tool because it allows us to avoid taking those messy molds of your teeth. No matter the age, our patients enjoy a quick and easy appointment to start on their orthodontic appliances. We think that’s a win-win for our practice and our patients. We know that the kids and teens also find it fascinating to watch the action as your teeth become digital and look like a video game on the screen. For Invisalign patients it also allows us to move digitized teeth into alignment. That way on this initial appointment you can see the end result of what your smile will look like before your treatment even begins. 

As with the other tools and technology in our office, the intraoral scanner helps to make your appointments as easy and convenient as possible. If you would like to see the scanner in action or have more questions about it please let us know. Remember that our orthodontic exams are complimentary, so come get your questions answered with the help of our iTero Intraoral Scanner! 

Dr. Lindhorst, Dr. Theriot and the Smiles For Kids Pediatric Dental Team