Experiences with the Kavo DIGNOcam Full Vision HD

 

I've been using the Kavo Diagnocam™ Full Vision HD for about a month now and I feel I have enough experience with it to now be able to tell you about the device and how well it has performed.

In the years since the first intraoral cameras came to market, dentistry has done a tremendous job helping our patients to better understand their conditions be actually letting them see what we see.  I've said this many times, but the human perceives over 80% of their environment through their eyes.  To put that in perspective, humans only perceive around 10% of their environment through things they hear.  That means communicating visually with patients is not only important, for all intents and purposes it's a requirement.

When people SEE they comprehend much better.  It's a simple as that.  Over the years I've been in the profession, every time I have introduced a new piece of tech that enables patients to better see their conditions,  the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.  So when I got the opportunity to work with the new KavoDIAGNOCAM Full Vision HD, I was excited to put it through some clinical usage.

First of all, the device is not only easy to use, it streamlines your workflows.  In the past, being able to provide imaging of a standard intraoral camera, a transilluminator, and a fluorescence device required picking up and using 3 different devices.  While I was happy to do that in order to get the data I needed, it could be time consuming.  It also required multiple devices to be connected to the operatory computer.  One of the terrific things about this device is that it performs as a 3-in-one device.  That means ONE unit generates 3 different  images.  That alone is groundbreaking and impressive.

Yet, that's been only one of the benefits to this system.  Let's go over each feature a bit.

• Intraoral camera
• As the name implies, the camera is HD.  The images it provides are sharp, detailed, and have a good depth of field.  The camera is also autofocus.  That means that you can literally rest the camera on a tooth and get phenomenal pictures.  Then you can use the camera to take extraoral images as well.  Within a second, the camera autofocuses and provides photos such as full face in crisp HD with NO fisheye distortion.  No matter how close or how far away I have used the camera. the images have looked great.
• Transillumination
• Many of us use transillumination frequently.  Illuminating a tooth from either the buccal or lingual provides a great deal of information.  Even the best radiographs sometimes don't show caries in the interproximal region with enough clarity to properly diagnose (that's one of the reasons I am such a fan of AI, but that's for another post).  The DIAGNOcam Full Vision HD provides NIR (near infrared) lighting that penetrates the tooth from both buccal and lingual directions.  This imaging provides sharp and high contrast black & white images of decay (interproximal aw well as other surfaces) and also shows cracks and other problems.
• Fluorescence
• When exposed to certain wavelengths of light, caries actually glows.  This fluorescence makes both tiny and large areas of decay show up brightly on the screen.  This allows the practitioner to see areas that are tiny.  This type of imaging benefits either early intervention of remineralization strategies because the caries can be easily detected and then monitored if need be.

The device has LEDs that create all 3 necessary wavelengths and switches between them with the push of a button.  The most amazing part of my experience is that the unit can take all 3 images with one button.  That allows you to place the unit over the tooth and get all 3 images in a second or two.  Scanning every tooth in the mouth is quick and easy.

For years our office has been using fluorescence, transillumination, and intraoral photos to document conditions and visually share them with our patients.  However, that has always required multiple devices and the time it takes to create those images.  The profession finally has one device that does all of those with the push of a button.

My experience has been a very good one and I can tell you this device is *highly recommended*.