Have you ever noticed a confused look on the face of an adult dental patient when you tell them they have a cavity? They haven’t had a cavity in many years, they have regularly gone to the dentist, they practice excellent oral hygiene, and they just didn’t see this coming.
Adults get cavities for the same reasons as children, and certain circumstances increase the risk of caries developing. For example:
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As we age, our saliva is no longer as protective. Even if our mouth doesn't feel dry, saliva doesn't protect us against bacteria and plaque as well as when we were younger. Many medications dry the mouth, exacerbating the situation.
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As we age, if we have gum recession, we have larger spaces between our teeth. We also can have growing gum pockets that trap more food particles that feed bacteria.
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After teeth are restored with fillings, inlays, onlays, and crowns, normal function can introduce openings in the restoration over time, and bacteria can creep into those openings.
Helping Patients Understand the Urgency of Care
Adults often need more than just an explanation—they need to see their dental issues clearly to truly understand the urgency of treatment. Visual aids, like images of cavities and other concerns, can turn confusion into clarity and hesitation into action. With Curve SuperHero™, the leading cloud-based all-in-one dental practice management software, and integrated Second Opinion AI® from Pearl, you can provide clear, evidence-based insights that empower patients to make informed decisions about their care.
Here's how these tools enhance patient communication and empower better dental care:
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Curve SuperHero by Curve Dental enhances your dental X-ray images, making it easier for dentists to identify cavities and other dental issues. By integrating imaging directly into the patient’s record and providing intuitive tools for adjusting contrast, brightness, and overlays, Curve allows you to visually guide patients through their diagnoses, making complex dental conditions easy to understand and improving patient communication and acceptance of treatment recommendations.
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Second Opinion AI software from Pearl integrates with Curve's platform, providing real-time analysis of dental x-rays. This AI-powered software can detect a wide range of dental conditions, including cavities, calculus, and periodontal disease. It can also assess the size of anatomical structures and the scope of decay. Even incipient caries become visible to providers so they can recommend the earliest, most conservative treatment.
By using Curve SuperHero and Second Opinion AI together, dentists can provide patients with clearer and more comprehensive information about their oral health. This can help patients to better understand the need for treatment and make informed decisions about their dental care.
The Benefits of Curve SuperHero and Second Opinion AI in Case Acceptance
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Improved accuracy in cavity detection: Second Opinion AI can help dentists to identify cavities that might be missed on a traditional x-ray.
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Early detection of dental problems: Early detection of dental problems can lead to less invasive and expensive treatment.
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Increased patient confidence: When patients can see for themselves what's going on with their teeth, they are more likely to feel confident in their dentist's recommendations.
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Improved treatment planning: The information provided by Second Opinion AI can help dentists take a second look, verify their diagnoses, and develop more effective treatment plans.
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Follow-up letters to patients who have not scheduled treatment: Curve’s enhanced dental communications tools enable you to track and automate personalized letters of encouragement to patients who have not scheduled treatment. You can easily email educational newsletters that support all aspects of oral health and the importance of care. Because of Curve’s built-in online scheduling option, your email campaigns can contain a link to self-schedule their recommended treatment or next regular appointment online. Curve’s tagging features make it easy to filter patients into appropriate lists for periodic email campaigns.
Key Additional Benefits of Curve Software
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Streamlined Workflows: Curve SuperHero automates and streamlines various aspects of dental practice management, such as patient scheduling, appointment reminders and confirmation, billing, collections, and patient communications. By automating tasks, dentists and their teams can save time and focus on providing patient care.
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Easier Case Acceptance: Enhanced images, visit summaries, and generated treatment plan documents explain diagnoses, treatment plans, and procedures in an understandable way.
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Increased Patient Confidence: When patients have a better understanding of their dental health, they are more likely to be confident in their treatment decisions and rave about being fully informed by your dentist.
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Reduces Overhead Costs: Return on investment is something all users are excited about. Because the software platform is used to streamline and improve all practice operations, it eliminates subscriptions to multiple software solutions. Curve offers a cost-effective solution for dental practices of all sizes.
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Top-Tier Cybersecurity: Your practice information and Curve’s functions will be secure on the cloud and accessible to you and your authorized staff members at all times.
Overall, Curve SuperHero can help dental practices improve patient care, enhance efficiency, and reduce costs. By leveraging the power of advanced technology, dentists can provide a higher level of service to their patients and more of the dentistry they need.
Schedule your personal demo and consultation today!
