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by Dr Jeremy Lam, Grange Family Dental, QLD
I use the SiroCam with practically every patient. Whether I’m doing a consultation, an examination or a check-up, it’s extremely useful to document what I’m seeing and then allow the patient to see the same thing.
What’s good about it
It is preferable to show a patient their issues as opposed to a purely verbal description. Most of the time they have no idea what a fracture or decay looks like until they see it for themselves. The SiroCam is a very good tool to bridge the knowledge gap between the practitioner and the patient.
I like to document whatever procedure I am undertaking. I keep accurate records of all my work and use the images to explain the procedure to the patient and show them the finished result. It helps them understand why they are having the work done and what they are getting for their money.
It also helps with case acceptance. There’s nothing more convincing than seeing the inside of a decayed tooth to encourage acceptance of restorative work. I’ve used different brands of intraoral cameras in the past but none of them had autofocus like the SiroCam. The quality of the images is excellent—way better than entry level cameras that barely show any detail. I’m able to document a tooth to within millimetres. The unit is robustly built and connects with your PC via a USB port.
What’s not so good
The button on the camera is not easily detectable by touch, so you have to look at it before you can use it. When I’m trying to find the button with my gloved hands, I just can’t feel it.
As a Service technician working on DentsplySirona equipment, I have had a lot of experience with what is good and bad about these cameras.
They are great, the best on the market when they work. but due to the way they connect to the computer Via the dental chair, USB line and also Network connection. There are a lot of things that can go wrong.
the USB line has issues because there are no less than 3 repeater boards in the chair, 4 different USB cable joins and that is just the image path.
The control path isn’t passed through the USB link, It goes through the network. so if you have an IP conflict on your network or any sort of network issues you won’t be able to take images at all.
The quality of the image and camera are top tier, and the ease of use is almost unparalleled when using it with sidexis. so it’s a trade-off between the ease of use and the unreliability.