Dental Technology

Springfield, Holyoke, Longmeadow, and Wilbraham, MA Dentistry

The field of dentistry is constantly changing. Our dentists, hygienists and clinical staff at Baystate Dental are committed to staying on the cutting edge of dental technology to provide you with the most effective and comfortable dental procedures available. We use different types of dental technology wherever appropriate and will explain to you how we will use the equipment during your procedure.

Current Dental Technology at Baystate Dental

Digital Intraoral Camera

An intraoral camera allows you to view your dental problems as the dentist sees them. By using a digital camera, we get instant images that we can display on the chairside monitor. We can zoom them large for more details and your dentist can point out what he or she sees that might need treatment.

Digital X-Rays

Digital X-rays provide immediate images of your teeth above and below the gumline. We can display them on the chairside monitor like digital photos and discuss problem areas. They expose you to 90 percent less radiation than traditional X-rays and there is no need to bite down on the sharp corners of traditional X-ray films because the digital sensors fit comfortably in the mouth. These X-rays are in color, which makes them easier to understand.

Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation Unit (TENS)

This little device allows our neuromuscular dentists to relieve your TMD pain. It has electrodes that are placed on the head, face, and neck areas to transmit gentle electrical pulses. This relaxes the jaw muscles and allows your jaw to achieve its correct position. This will now be the goal of your TMD treatment plan – to make the correct position permanent. Some TMD patients buy their own TENS unit for relaxing treatments at home.

Soft Tissue Laser

Lasers and computers have transformed dentistry and our soft tissue laser replaces the old scalpel (knife) in all gum work. Medical lasers are designed to never burn. They work by disintegrating molecular bonds in unwanted tissue, vaporizing that tissue instantly. By sealing the remaining tissue, they prevent bleeding and minimize any chance of infection. No stitches are need, as no tissue is cut. They are extraordinarily precise and your recovery period will be short.

Air Abrasion

Air abrasion is an alternative to dental drilling in some cases. At Baystate Dental, we use the Kinetic Cavity Protection (KCP) air abrasion system that uses a gentle stream of airborne particles to remove tooth decay. When decay is shallow or very early and small, your dentist can use air abrasion and apply a white filling in 10 or 15 minutes. An anesthetic may not be necessary. Air abrasion preserves more healthy tooth tissue than a drill can and it is quiet. This makes it a good tool for pediatric dentistry when a child is frightened.

Watch-PAT200 device

With the Watch-PAT200 device, we can help you determine whether or not you have sleep Apnea. Rather than going to a sleep clinic to diagnose your symptoms, you wear this FDA-approved device on the wrist while you sleep at home. There is a finger mounted probe to measure your peripheral arterial tone (PAT). You can sleep soundly and when we look at the data the Watch-PAT200 gathered during the night, we can start planning any necessary sleep apnea treatment.

i-CAT© Cone Beam 3-D Dental Imaging

Baystate Dental is proud to offer our patients the i-CAT© in-office 3-D imaging. This technology gives us a better understanding of your dental anatomy for such procedures as Dental implants, orthodontics and TMJ analysis. It exposes you to very little radiation, scanning your mouth for only 20 seconds. It is a floor-standing system with a chair where you can relax with your chin held in place while the scanners rotate around you. You are not in an enclosed space as with an MRI. The resulting images are pixel-based and can be manipulated much as any digital camera software allows you to modify your own photographs.

Paperless Offices

Baystate Dental is committed to doing our best to help protect the environment.  One of our “green” initiatives that our patients will interact with is our “Paperless” offices.  In all of our offices with the exception of Springfield, our patients will use tablet computers to fill out, update and sign various forms.  These documents are stored electronically eliminating the need to print and file these documents.  Storing these documents electronically also increases the security and privacy of the information. 

Future Dental Technology at Baystate Dental

Baystate Dental will soon be acquiring two new technologies for your dental care.

• The K7 Evaluation System

This computerized measuring system gathers a great amount of data for diagnosing TMD. There are three parts to its capability and for each part you have a piece of lightweight equipment either over the head or around your neck. The K-7 system performs:

• Electromyography to measure and record jaw muscle electrical activity
• Sonography to record jaw joint sounds
• Mandibular scanning to measure and record jaw muscle movements

The CEREC system

CEREC (Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics) will allow us to create porcelain restorations in our own office instead of using a dental laboratory. You will not need to have two visits for dental crowns or porcelain dental inlays and onlays because while you wait for a few minutes, we will make them here.

The CEREC system has CAD/CAM software (Computer Aided Design / Computer Aided Manufacturing) so that we can input your data to the system and it will mill your porcelain restoration for an exact fit.

If you would like to learn more about the dental technology used at Baystate Dental, please contact our experienced dentists for a dentistry consultation. We have many convenient Massachusetts locations in Springfield, Longmeadow and Wilbraham.