Dental Asia November/December 2021

that the hoses should be flushed for at least
20 seconds after every patient’s appointment.
Parts such as light handles and trays are
removable so that they can be properly
disinfected separately between uses.”
Dr Dolan also highlighted how their intraoral
scanner, Primescan, proved to be a true
all-rounder as it ensures high-quality
digital impressions and exceeds minimum
recommended hygiene guidelines.
“It is the only scanner that provides a variety
of disinfection and sterilisation procedures
with three different sleeve options. Thanks to
the smooth surfaces of Primescan and the
acquisition centre, the hygienically critical
areas, which are often difficult to clean, can
be reprocessed safely, quickly and easily,” she
added.
In achieving highest level of safety, Dr Dolan
noted that the practice design can also
influence the workflow to make cleaning even
easier.
“I would recommend having a sterilisation
room that is located quite centrally, so that
the team has short distances that ideally
avoid many crossroads between staff and
patients. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic,
many practices have rethought their waiting
room concepts as well to accommodate social
distancing needs,” she said.
When it comes to the important topic
of reprocessing instruments, Dentsply
Sirona offers the DAC Universal family
of reprocessing units. With this device,
all cleaning steps are standardised and
fully automated at the touch of a button,
minimising application errors to the greatest
possible degree. Last year, independent
testing confirmed full virucidal activity of the
DAC Universal. This includes activity against
all enveloped viruses such as SARS-CoV-2,
and non-enveloped viruses.
CONTINUING EDUCATION
With the pandemic situation accelerating
the digital revolution in the field, Dentsply
Sirona ensures that the professionals can
keep up with the advancements through their
continuing education programmes.
Dr Dolan, shared: “We have the strongest
clinical education programme in the industry
and are constantly upgrading the courses
to meet the needs of dental professionals.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we quickly
shifted much of our clinical education training
to an online environment, but we also still
have 60 training facilities, dental academies
and showrooms around the world where
dental professionals can take live courses and
experience our cutting-edge technology that
is transforming dentistry.”
Furthermore, Dentsply Sirona is committed
to supporting their customers’ needs all over
the world as reflected in the new training
facilities within the Asia Pacific they opened
over the past several years in Singapore, Hong
Kong, Jakarta, (Indonesia) and Kuala Lumpur
(Malaysia). With the COVID-19 pandemic
reducing their ability to train together in
person, Dentsply Sirona quickly recalibrated
their clinical education offerings at the
beginning of the pandemic by moving most of
their courses online and tailoring them to meet
the current needs of dental professionals.
“In 2020 alone, we had over a million
participants in our clinical education courses.
Especially in the APAC region, which was
hit with COVID-19 before anywhere else
in the world, we reacted fast. Numerous
digital formats, such as online training,
digital congresses, and trade fairs, as well
as internal training and meetings, were
set up immediately at the beginning of the
pandemic,” she said.
Dr Dolan added that one of the many initial
highlights included a new online training
programme that was developed and
implemented in China when the COVID-19
outbreak began in January 2020; the first
real-time online course took place already on
February 9, 2020. In less than three weeks, 46
courses were set up, which were viewed by sixdigit
strong audience of dental professionals.
TRENDS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Dentsply Sirona offers an extensive range of
recent innovations in their solutions pipeline
including Axeos, Astra Tech ImplantEV, Surefil
one, SureSmile, Palodent 360, ProTaper Ultimate,
CEREC MTL Zirconia, as well as updates to their
CEREC and Connect software with many more
highlights coming next year.
Dr Dolan asserted that dental professionals can
expect Dentsply Sirona to expand its research
on the use of artificial intelligence for dental
applications. In fact, this technology is already
used in Primescan helping to compare intraoral
impressions from different points in time for
patient monitoring.
“That gets me to another point about data –
technologies like our Primescan capture an
incredible amount of data and in the future,
we will be able to even more efficiently utilise
this wealth of data for even better diagnostics.
There is also great potential in materials that
can be digitally processed to provide longevity,
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