451: How Digital Workflows Are Changing the Landscape of Dentistry - Dr. John Cranham&Lee Culp, CDT - a podcast by ACT Dental

How Digital Workflows Are Changing the Landscape of Dentistry

Episode #451 with Dr. John Cranham & Lee Culp, CDT

Digital is one of the greatest things that’s happened in dentistry. You can get more done in less time with higher predictability. So, why aren't more dentists transitioning to a digital workflow? Today, Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. John Cranham and Lee Culp, founders of Cranham Culp Digital Dental, to explore the resistance to digital, how that prevents high-level dentistry, and steps to transition to a digital workflow. Digital is the future! To start your transition journey today, listen to Episode 451 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Efficiency, predictability, and communication improves with digital.

Using digital will help you educate patients on the spot.

Avoid going back and forth from analog to digital.

Digital is as good — if not better — than analog.

High-level dentistry requires technology.

You can't learn this in a weekend.

Quotes:

“[Digital is] an incredible time-savings. And then, the outputs are so much better, it leads to higher degrees of predictability in what we’re doing.” (7:56—8:05)

“I had a conversation with some of the people we’re coaching — it was kind of a game — ‘How much money would somebody have to give you to take your 3Shape away? To go back to stone and do it the way you used to, how much would they have to give you?’ It’s a big number for me because of how much better it is and how much more efficient it is.” (8:07—8:30)

“I used to really think you couldn't do veneers with scanning. I do veneers with scanning all the time now.” (9:25—9:31)

“The tip that I would tell, and this is where I think people get into trouble, is they don't trust the digital. So, what they will do is they’ll start to do something digital, and then they go back to analog to check it. And when you start going back and forth between analog and digital, I think you can really screw things up. It’s better to be all digital or all analog.” (10:01—10:24)

“I don't know that we’re doing any better with impressions than we are with digital scans. And we can still do corrective casts if things aren't working. But [with digital,] Dr. Cranham is able to do things so much faster, and efficient, and be able to educate his patients right then, not two weeks later after we pour all the models and do all this.” (11:50—12:11)

“I can simulate anything you can possibly think of on my computer screen.” (12:46—12:51)

“When we look at what's going on in the research community and the prosthodontic community and all the journals, everything is digital. All the research is digital now. Obviously, there is biological research going on. But if it’s anything in prosthodontics where we’re making things, all the journals are digital now. And I think that qualification from the universities is something we needed to have because we’re showing cool things that could be done very predictably every day.” (14:51—15:21)

“Dr. Dawson used to say that it was good for the patient to come back because at the first visit, you just showed them the problems. They needed a week or so to think about the problems in order to accept the case. Well, I don't know if that's true or not. I think we maybe said that because it made us feel better about the fact that it took us a week to mount the models.”  (20:03—20:24)

“Patients come in, and the more we can get done that day is a good thing — if we’re not compromising.” (21:07—21:15)

“My real passion is, if I can get more dentists to not freaking wing it and to really plan where they're going, dentistry is going to be better. And that's what I feel like, is that the old way, dentists found out that they could do a pretty good job not really having a clear picture and visualizing but prepping...

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