Dental Technology
From the beginning, the team at Terrance J. O’Keefe DDS has been committed to providing patients with state-of-the-art, compassionate dental care. Our doctor and staff work hard each day to provide you and your family with personalized care and solutions to help you improve your oral health.
In 2002, we moved into our current location, which gave us the opportunity to expand our in-office treatment capabilities. We are proud to offer our patients the most modern dental technologies available. It is our goal for you and your family to always leave our office smiling!
Improving Your Dental Health & Leaving You Smiling
While we we don’t try to impress you with our fancy tools, we do want to impress you with how well we use them to get great results. For more information about our in-office technology, please read the descriptions below or give us a call at (585) 377-1670.
Automated External Defibrillator (AED)
While we like to laugh and enjoy our work, we know that we must be ready for trouble too. That is why we all maintain current CPR training; keep our emergency kit up to date (and available at a moments notice), and an Automated External Defibrillator AED. An AED will deliver a shock to the heart to allow it to restart in the event of certain cardiac emergencies.
Our AED is mounted right in the Treatment Area hallway for everyone to see and get to if needed.
No one wants to have an emergency… but we are prepared if you do.
Sterilization
Clean is good, but disinfected and sterile is better. We always practice complete sterilization, and universal precautions as outlined by the American Dental Association. All of our instruments or ultrasonically cleaned, then bagged, and sterilized with steam under pressure in our state-of-the-art DeltaQ 10 autoclave. We test the effectiveness of our autoclave with a spore test every week and have done so for many years. All of the surfaces in our treatment rooms are disinfected before and after each patient treatment.
We know how important disinfection and sterilization are in preventing cross contaminations. We treat our families here also!
CEREC Same Day Restorations
In 2007, Dr. O’Keefe decided to enter the world of single visit restorations. With our in-house CEREC system, we are able to prepare and create ceramic inlay/onlays, crowns, and veneers. This technology allows us to shape a tooth and then scan the impression via an intraoral blue laser camera. This data is then sent to our milling unit to construct an all-ceramic crown, which is then polished or glazed, and then bonded into place.
Using this system eliminates the need for a temporary crown or multiple appointments to complete the restoration process. We have been able to use the CEREC system to restore both anterior and posterior teeth after accidents, and Dr. O’Keefe has been asked to lecture on CEREC to make crowns for implants.
Diagnodent
The grooves in the chewing surfaces of teeth are common sites for cavities to start. Some of these locations can be undetectable through normal diagnostic techniques, because of their minute size. That is why we have the Diagnodent laser cavity detection system. Decayed tooth structure reflects the precision laser light of the Diagnodent differently than sound tooth structure. These differences are measured and recorded to aid in diagnosis.
Obviously, the earlier tooth decay is detected, the less damage can be done to the tooth structure and the easier to repair. This system is designed to complement traditional oral examinations and plays an important role in early cavity and decay detection.
Digital X-Rays
Upon completing our move to our new office, we incorporated digital radiography into our portfolio of dental technology utilized. Over the years, we have used several systems and have grown confident in using the Schick Dicom CDR Elite system. We have two reasonably sized intraoral sensors and an extraoral IPan for our Planmeca Panoral machine to allow us to create detailed digital radiographic images. The images can displayed on our large Operatory computer monitors. Obviously, the more that we can see the better our diagnoses can be.
Digital x-rays use less radiation than traditional x-rays and remove the need for harmful chemicals. Also, because our images are digital, we are able to send them to other dentists, specialists, or insurance companies on your behalf at a moments notice via the Internet.
Intraoral Camera
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so we use intraoral photography to evaluate, teach, store, and transmit information to others. Our camera is about the size of a pen and produces images of incredible clarity. This helps us capture images of almost any tooth or tissue surface quickly and easily.
The photos on this website were taken with it!
Navigator Diode Laser
Dentistry is still unable to replace the dreaded drills with lasers, but there are some instances where lasers can really help. We have the Navigator Diode Soft Tissue Laser for these instances. A diode laser is used to treat conditions involving gum tissue with very little anesthesia required. We can treat local gum conditions, without needing to refer to a Periodontist, and some surgical procedures such as frenectomy or removal of fibrous lesions without a surgeon. The Navigator Laser has also proven to be effective in canker sore treatment.
So Star-Trek no … modern dentistry yes.
Rotary Endodontic System
The words “you need root canal therapy” usually strike fear into the hearts of people. This fear was born from how things used to be. In years gone by, root canal therapy was usually performed over three separate, long appointments only using hand tools. Each appointment took a long time, and had limited predictable results.
Well, the future is here. We use rotary files with electric motor dental headpieces made specifically for them. This allows us to usually complete the procedure — even on complex molars — during one visit. Rotary files allow us to be very efficient and consistent in our root canal therapy. Now we just have to help keep our patients from falling asleep!
For more information about our in-office technology, our treatments, or to schedule an appointment, please contact us today at (585) 377-1670.
We look forward to caring for you and your family.