Dental professionals in the dental community are very tactile people. The ability for me to fully understand and experience how the laser was handled, and how my staff would integrate it into our workflow was critical in deciding to adopt the laser into my practice. Being able to attend the WETP training in-person vs a screen (which was often the format amid the pandemic) ultimately swayed my decision to integrate the lasers, and why I recommend providers take the opportunity to attend a WETP, if possible.
I continue to compare it with buying a car. Many people would be uncomfortable with making a large investment and commitment without a “test drive,” and I certainly wouldn’t feel comfortable subjecting my patients to the “passenger seat” of a vehicle I didn’t trust myself!
More procedures, less time
As COVID-19 cases fell and vaccinations became widely available, patients began to return to in-person appointments. This led us to see an influx of patients in our practice and allowed us to adopt lasers into their daily cleanings and procedures.
Another added advantage to adopting the Waterlase dental laser into my practice is the ability to perform new procedures that I had initially not foreseen, such as the ability to remove zirconia veneers and crowns in the crown removal process. Prior to utilizing dental lasers, older dental technologies would be more abrasive and rough on the natural tooth. With dental lasers, the crowns come off in one piece and take seconds compared to a more conventional approach.
One patient who further solidified my decision to invest in dental lasers needed six restorations. Six restorations are no small task, but with the Waterlase iPlus, the procedure time was cut in half! This patient compared the use of a dental laser for his treatment to watching TV on a high-definition screen vs televisions that were black and white on a box- I loved the comparison. With the Waterlase iPlus, cavity preparations such as this patient rarely require numbing, which immediately creates a positive impact on the experience during the treatment, but also after they leave the chair.