3Shape TRIOS and Unite Simplify Treatments for Busy Practitioners

Miles R. Cone, DMD, MS, CDT, has just one complaint about intraoral scanners in dentistry: He wishes he had started using one sooner. "I used to be vehemently opposed to intraoral scanning. That changed just under a year ago when we bought our 3Shape TRIOS 3 Intraoral Scanner. Literally overnight, our practice changed," Cone exclaims. "The TRIOS cut hours out of my daily workflow and made a tremendous difference in reducing the clinic's overhead."

Cone, an Army veteran who achieved board certification and diplomate status as a prosthodontist and is also a Certified Dental Technician, notes: "As a prosthodontist, having the TRIOS in my office makes the dental experience for patients much more enjoyable. As a laboratory technician, the ability to seamlessly communicate in near real-time with the folks who are making my restorations and the confidence it gives me can't be emphasized enough."

Along with 3Shape's TRIOS, Cone has implemented 3Shape Unite, a workflow engine that allows clinicians to compile and collaborate on patient files to generate the best and most efficient treatment plan. 3Shape Unite is an open platform that lets dentists tailor digital dentistry based on their needs, whether scanning and sending to a lab, completing in-house dentistry with 3Shape or other partner apps, or a combination of the two.

"3Shape Unite allows me to collaborate with the fixed and removable technicians that I rely on every day to help with my patients. Because everything is in one place, it makes my otherwise chaotic clinic life streamlined and easier to manage," Cone says.

"The patient-engagement apps on the platform have been game-changing in terms of both impressing and educating my patients. For patients with parafunctional behaviors, such as bruxism, I now have the ability to monitor their dentition with serial scans each time they come in. The treatment simulator has also been key in delivering the ‘wow' factor that a physical wax-up on a model never could. It's kind of like the difference between someone seeing a tailored suit on the rack versus seeing it on them in a photograph. I also take a screenshot of the proposed treatment plan for an anterior makeover and send it to the patient. I don't need to sell anything-the pictures speak for themselves!"

For Cone, the integration of 3Shape's TRIOS 3 and Unite into his practice, which he says was "incredibly easy," has meant a better organized dental clinic and improved work-family balance. "The scanner has allowed me to focus more on this amazing profession without burdening myself down with all the [analog] grunt work. Now that I am not stuck in the lab all night, I am able to invest more time back into my family."

Miles R. Cone, DMD, MS, CDT
Private Practice limited to Prosthodontics; Fellow, American College of Prosthodontists

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