This is one for dentists and guys in implant dentistry mostly.
We had a great discussion on the CBCT course last week about which CBCT scanner to use when its time to buy a CT scanner. Incidentally this can be used across the board in dentistry for most large capital purchases I think.
There are various factors to consider we thought when the moment comes to choose.
1. Quality of the machine, by this I mean build quality, how long is it likely to last, what kind of guarantee comes with the machine. For example, the Serona machine gives a 5 year guarantee, well it did when I brought it. When I brought my Carestream machine I got 1 year.
2. Quality of the image, surely this must the most important thing. The quality of the image that the machine provides will give you the best diagnostic result but of course an increase quality of image may (or may not) be a result of an increase radiation dose.
3. Quality of support. If your machine breaks down you need to get it working as quickly as possible. If you buy the machine that is the best on the market but the company has no engineers in this country, that is going to be a problem.
4. The amount of integration your machine has with the systems you already have. For example Cerec and Serona.
Basically this pot above adds up to a very difficult decision as to how to move forwards. If your already running a sophisticated Cerec system in your practice it may be difficult to see past Serona. But now days the systems open up certainly not impossible. If your only just starting out in CBCT you may wish to pick up a machine of less expense, or cheaper than some of the more expensive premium machines. You may go for gendex which I am told produces excellent images and seems to be more affordable. If your running r4 in your practice you may think its better to stick with Carestream if you speak to some of the guys that have used Datech for a long time and your familiar with the scan platform, you may go for them.
Always though with the suppliers remember that you’re the customer, remember that some machines give a 5 year guarantee because they believe in the build quality of there product and if others do not you would financial compensation for that upfront. Its up to £25,000 to replace a failed sensor in a machine and I have known at least two Carestream sensors to go. Also understand that if you are buying a machine to go into guided surgery much of the systems are opening up and you may not necessarily be locked into a single system from now on. So the consensus was that you need to speak to as many people as you can (within dentistry, not the suppliers) to figure out which is the best machine for you that fits what you would like to do with it.
Once you’ve got it, don’t look back. Make it work for you.
Blog Post Number - 1303
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