Dr. Valerie Cooper practises in Dayton, Ohio, specialising in prosthodontics. She works alongside an associate, as well as specialist periodontists and a maxillofacial prosthodontist. She and her colleagues have never looked back since introducing digital techniques into the practice in 2015. “As a team we are excited about making dentures now. What’s nice is that we are happy to be doing it – unlike many other dentists who are not excited by the process,” she says.

As a prosthodontist, Valerie has always enjoyed making dentures. “It’s rewarding and challenging, but I have always wanted to make better dentures,” she says. “Using conventional techniques can often be frustrating, because it’s difficult to make minor changes and adjustments, there can be errors with models and there are so many opportunities for things to go wrong.”

A colleague recommended digital dentures, and Valerie decided to try them out. “I was cautious, thinking it might just be a fad,” she said, “but I tried a few cases and was so impressed that I decided to make the transition.” She particularly liked the fact that she was able to try out the process before committing to buying the equipment. “At the start I tried it without needing to purchase anything,” she said. “Many systems involve a lot of separate items of equipment but I was able to experiment.” Eventually she bought a scanner so that she could digitize her own impressions and now works with both a desktop scanner and an intraoral scanner.

Valerie does not accept the argument that making digital dentures can de-skill the dentist or the technician. “Digital techniques are the best tool in my hand to make dentures,” she says. “They do not replace my knowledge, skill or the ability to figure things out. Instead they enhance my abilities and the speed with which I can make dentures.” Additionally, digital techniques are more forgiving, she thinks, and allow the user to up their game. The human aspect is still essential though, making decisions and dealing with patients – what’s eliminated is the human error.

Moving to digital dentistry involves a change of mindset, she says, but it can be a gradual process if the dentist wants to introduce it gently while keeping some of their conventional steps. Once you move across to digital completely, then you start to reap the benefits, she says. “You have to have that confidence that what you specify is exactly what you will get. Computers are machines – they do what you ask, and always do it predictably and exactly.”

From a business point of view, Valerie has seen her productivity rocket. Reducing the number of appointments has freed up a huge amount of extra time. In 2017 the practice made 157 dentures. Carrying out only 0.45 try-ins rather than the usual 2 saved 162 hours of chairtime and patient inconvenience, and doing just 3.2 adjusts rather than the normal 4.8 saved a further 168 hours. “We have now almost doubled the amount of dentures we provide compared with before we introduced the digital techniques,” she said. “And significantly reduced clinical time is the bottom line.”

“It’s changed the way I make dentures,” she said. “I always enjoyed doing it but there were frustrations. Now it’s a really enjoyable practice.” There will still always be the difficult denture patient. “The advantage is that I now have better tools to help them! And for me that’s priceless.”