Joshua Austin: Tell me a little about your practice and your journey with digital dentistry.
Jeff Lineberry: I’ve been in private practice for over 20 years, focusing on a holistic approach to patient care. I help patients by getting them engaged in their overall health and their oral health by providing them with education and, when necessary, comprehensive esthetic restorative care including implant placement and managing TMD-related issues.
My venture into the digital world has changed drastically over the past year. For most of my practice life, I have been an analog person, knowing that digital was there and for a lot of others I knew, was working well. One of the main holdups for me was the significant upfront investment but also that many past systems involved a lot of ongoing “maintenance” fees.
Not only that, it was also about creating a workflow that would be easy to incorporate using the new equipment and digital aspects of dentistry effectively and efficiently into my practice. That is when I got involved using Whip Mix’s VeriOne system with its “ecosystem,” consisting of its own scanner, 3D printer, digital team that helps get dentists and their teams up and going at an affordable cost.
Over the past year, I have begun to do more scanning and printing, and I have really started to understand the digital world and how, when used properly, it can help increase your practice’s overall efficiency. Do I do everything digitally yet? No. Do I see myself doing less analog and more digital in the future? Yes! And with the overall affordability of 3D printers and materials, I see that this is going to change dentistry going forward.
JA: I am glad to hear that the VeriOne system has been working for you. What are the components of that system that you’re using in your practice?
JL: Currently I’m using the intraoral scanner and the 3D printer that came with my system, the Asiga Max.
JA: What types of procedures are you using these for?
JL: I use the intraoral scanner for fixed restorative procedures, namely single units, and also for diagnostic models and scans for surgical guides. I primarily use the 3D printer to print diagnostic models as well as surgical guides.
JA: How quickly and simply can you produce a diagnostic model or a surgical guide?
JL: Right now, diagnostic casts require me to scan and then submit the raw scan data to a design service for a “clean” printable file that I can download and print. Surgical guides obviously take more planning and more time, but with third-party software like BlueSky Bio, I can do an intraoral scan and a CBCT scan, and I can have a surgical guide designed and downloadable for printing in less than an hour. I can then print and process the guide in a few hours, and as long as I have guide sleeves available, we sterilize and are ready for surgery!
JA: You mentioned the service and support that come with the VeriOne line. Can you speak to that a little bit? What does that involve, and how has that helped you with your immersion into the digital dentistry world?
JL: The nice thing about the VeriOne is that Whip Mix sells it as a package, and I have one place to contact and get assistance versus if I purchased the components from more than one manufacturer or place. In that scenario, you can sometimes get bounced around from one place to the next when you are trying to get answers.
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JA: Can you give me an example that has happened in your practice of how this support has really been effective for you?
JL: When we first got started, we had some issues with our scans, including getting them to print properly. Part of it was simply our own doing. Even though we had in-office training, we still had questions with the overall workflow. We simply called the one number that we have for support, and we were able to get things resolved in a short period of time.
JA: That kind of service and support is invaluable! What’s next for your practice with the VeriOne system?
JL: My goal right now is to continue to incorporate it into my practice and look for opportunities to make things easier. A great example is the other week: I had a patient come in for new dentures. Rather than take impressions and have custom impression trays and bite rims made, I actually scanned the current dentures, printed and adjusted them for a try-in, and used them as my custom tray/bite rim. It worked great and reduced the number of appointments going forward!
JA: The denture refabrication workflow is something I am really excited for! I know that there are a couple of different intraoral scanners available with the VeriOne system. Which one are you using?
JL: Right now I’m using the VeriOne from 3Disc but I’ll more than likely be looking at their newest scanner partner, Trios 3Shape, in the near future to further my experience with different IO scanners.
Editor's note: This article appeared in the December 2022 print edition of Dental Economics magazine. Dentists in North America are eligible for a complimentary print subscription. Sign up here.
