Digital Dentistry

Dentistry has made incredible advancements in the past few decades, and Dr. Brent Gorrell makes it a point to stay current with these emerging technologies and trends. He has completed years of hands-on training and taken over 1,100 hours of continuing education since he’s been practicing so that he can bring you the very best that modern dentistry has to offer.

Dr. Gorrell’s in-depth knowledge and understanding allows him to offer leading-edge dental technology that enhances the comfort and efficiency of your treatment and improves long-term outcomes. Digital dentistry at our Mountain View dental office plays a significant role in the quality of care with which we can provide you.

What Is Digital Dentistry?

When we talk about digital dentistry, we refer to modern dental technology that helps us carry out dental procedures with the aid of digital or computer-controlled components. Compared to using mechanical or electrical tools, digital dentistry improves the efficiency of dental procedures. Here are examples of the digital dental technology we use at Gorrell Smiles:

  • Digital x-rays
  • Intraoral cameras
  • 3-D cone beam imaging
  • CAD/CAM 
  • Digital printing
  • Digital impressions

How Digital Dentistry Enhances Your Dental Care

Digital dentistry touches just about every area of your dental care:

Enhanced Diagnostic Capabilities

Until recently, dentists were limited to film x-rays and visual exams to detect and diagnose dental conditions. Today, digital radiography (x-rays) allow Dr. Gorrell and his associates to identify problems in their earliest stages when we can provide conservative treatment. Intraoral digital cameras illuminate the inside of your mouth and show us up-close, real-time images of the inside of your mouth that take visual exams to the next level. 

Efficient Treatment Planning

There are many procedures today, such as dental implant placement, orthodontic treatment, root canals, and tooth extractions, that require a more comprehensive view of your mouth than a single digital x-ray can provide.

That is when we turn to technology like 3-D cone beam imaging technology (CBCT). These images provide invaluable information and show us details like dental structures, soft tissues, nerve pathways, and bone in a single scan. This information is valuable when planning the precise placement of dental implants. We also use CBCT to detect pathology of your jaw bones and the surrounding structures.

CAD/CAM (Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing) technology assists our dentists in the design and manufacturing of high-quality dental restorations. Using digital impressions and 3-D printing, we can fabricate CEREC same-visit dental crowns, veneers, inlays, and onlays in a single visit to our Mountain View dental office.

Improved Patient Education

We have learned from experience that informed patients tend to be more proactive with their oral health. Understanding your dental needs results in a healthier smile, lower dental bills, and fewer emergency trips to the dentist. Patient education is the key, and digital dentistry plays an invaluable role in helping you learn about your own oral health needs.

Digital x-rays allow us to see inside your teeth and find problems while they’re minor and relatively easy to treat. Since we can manipulate the images, we can share them with you on your chairside monitor, point out the area of concern, and you can easily see the problem for yourself.

Intraoral cameras allow us to take a tour of your mouth to look for visible signs of tooth decay or other dental damage. There’s nothing like a close-up image of a decayed tooth to convince you of the need for treatment! 

Improved Patient Comfort

We offer a wide array of dental technologies, but they all have one thing in common, and that's streamlined treatment and improved comfort for you. Digital dentistry makes each step of your dental treatment more efficient and minimizes the amount of time you spend in the dental chair. 

Please Call Us for More Information

At Gorrell Smiles, we're proud of the high standard of care we can offer our patients by using digital dental technology. If you have questions about our state-of-the-art dental care or would like to arrange a dental appointment, please call us at (650) 399-9657.