Align Oral Health Suite including future collaboration with X-Ray Insights will aid doctors in improving patients’ oral health.
Align Technology is a leading global medical device company which designs, manufactures and sells the Invisalign system of clear aligners. Additionally, iTero intraoral scanners and exocad CAD/CAM software for digital orthodontics and restorative dentistry. The company has now introduced new software innovations to accelerate digital practice transformation.
The Align Oral Health Suite is an intuitive and engaging digital interface to enhance dental consultations and drive treatment acceptance*. It offers a modern approach to dental examinations, featuring an innovative clinical framework. This empowers doctors and their clinic staff to conduct comprehensive oral health assessments. It can be done via a single scan using patient-friendly terminology, and providing a highly engaging patient-centric experience.
The Align Oral Health Suite
Available on the iTero Element Plus Series, the Align Oral Health Suite covers a broad range of dental health conditions. This is necessary for patients to better understand their oral health. It enables doctors to create and share a custom oral health report, capturing the treatment recommendations discussed in consultation.
It integrates iTero diagnostic aid and visualization tools. These include iTero NIRI, iTero Occlusogram, iTero TimeLapse and Invisalign Outcome Simulator Pro. All within a single interface chairside on the iTero scanner and available on the MyiTero.com portal.
‘The goal of the patient exam is to diagnose oral and dental health conditions, whereas the goal of patient education is to increase treatment acceptance,’ said Dr Lovedeep Randhawa, a general dentist who participated in the limited market release of the Align Oral Health Suite.
‘This new framework streamlines and elevates the oral health consultation with the patient in a very efficient and user-friendly way. My team has found patients are responding better during consultations, as we are able to provide a highly visual, patient-centric experience that helps them understand their oral health and builds trust in diagnosis.’
Enhancing the digital treatment experience
Align also announced X-Ray Insights technology designed to streamline x-ray assessments, improve patient communication, and enhance the digital treatment experience.
‘AI-driven oral health assessment tools, like X-Ray Insights, discern data and enhance doctor-patient conversations, treatment option evaluation, and shared decision-making regarding oral health conditions and dental treatment options,’ said Sreelakshmi Kolli, Align executive vice president and chief digital officer. ‘It goes beyond digital orthodontics and supports oral health assessments by generating a digital image of oral health findings, improving patient communication and helping increase practice growth.’
‘X-Ray Insights creates next level clinical assessment tools that help doctors identify, visualise and educate patients about, their oral health conditions,’ said Dr Mitra Derakhshan, Align Technology senior vice president, global clinical. ‘Powered by AI algorithms to evaluate dental radiographic images for caries, calculus, periapical radiolucencies, and bone loss, X-Ray Insights offers doctors the flexibility to identify and visualise these conditions chairside, which helps elevate patient communication and increase dental treatment acceptance.’
The latest iTero-exocad Connector optimises doctor and lab collaboration and productivity by streamlining case communication in a single secure channel. This supports the goal of providing an end-to-end treatment workflow and accelerating digital practice transformation. It also saves time and increases productivity.
The iTero-exocad Connector integrates iTero intraoral camera and near infrared images (NIRI) within exocad DentalCAD 3.1 Rijeka software. This allows dental professionals to visualise the internal and external structure of teeth. Clinics will be able to share files related to their case with their lab, streamlining collaboration and driving consistent outcomes.
Added value in practice
‘The combination of the iTero scanner and exocad software capabilities creates more value for my practice. The new feature which enables the sharing of additional files such as images and videos with my lab, all via one portal, makes our work together better and easier,’ said Dr. Jan Einfeldt, a general dentist at Staplehurst Dental Practice, Kent, who participated in the limited market release.
‘With more information, such as intraoral camera images and iTero NIRI images, my dental technician can design restorations with more efficiency and we can reduce remakes, ultimately providing a better experience for my patients.’
‘These new innovations highlight Align’s commitment to accelerating digital practice transformation through the Align Digital Platform,’ said Karim Boussebaa, Align Technology executive vice president and managing director of the iTero scanner and services business. ‘Doctors will now be able to perform a comprehensive oral health assessment chairside with the Align Oral Health Suite** which provides patients with a full digital experience from the first visit – helping engage them in their oral health journey – and doctors and labs will experience improved, streamlined communication with iTero-exocad Connector.’
*Subject to healthcare provider’s professional judgment
**Both the Align Oral Health Suite and the latest iTero-exocad connector are expected to be commercially available in 2023. For availability in the market, please contact the local Align marketing representative.
X-Ray Insights is based on dentalXrai technology and will be in limited market release in 2023 with select EU customers. Align acquired privately-held dentalXrai GmbH in July 2022.
For more information please visit www.itero.com
