Our modern equipment is of the highest quality
The modern equipment in our practice helps us to deliver quality care. All items have been carefully selected for comfort, quality, function and sustainabilty.
The Dental Chair
Our principal dentist has chosen a dental chair made in Germany by KaVo, a company with more than 100 years experience in dental equipment. These units are technologically advanced and specially constructed to comfortably accommodate a patient of up to 180kg. The overhead light is an entirely new design which uses special LED elements to provide brilliant, focussed light right where it is needed. The unit provides everything you might expect from quality German engineering – hygiene, efficient minimalist design, durability and environmental aware design.
The chair is so much more than just a chair – it also provides the main instrumentation your Dentist requires to provide you the best care. These chairs are equipped with the latest technology to provide low noise, low vibration motors to make the patient experience as pleasant as possible. The water system used is fully self contained and we only use ultra high purity reverse osmosis filtered water in them.
Diagnocam™
The Diagnocam is a new technological development which reduces the need for x-ray exposure for certain patients. This device is a highly sensitive, highly specialised infrared camera system developed for the task of identifying problems with the teeth that our eyes may not be able to easily detect.
This device can reliably detect early decay in the grooves of the teeth, under and around existing restorations, and can also identify some fractures in the enamel and dentine. The use of this technology is provided without charge.
Intraoral Photography
A professional digital SLR with 100mm macro lens, ring flash and specialised mouth mirrors allows for the highest quality photographic documentation of the skin, teeth and oral tissues. A smaller intraoral camera is also used to provide images of areas of the mouth more difficult to visualise with the SLR camera. The use of this technology is provided without charge but can be of immense value in correctly documenting the oral condition.
Panoramic Dental X-Ray Machine
This machine is used to take a radiograph (x-ray) of the whole face, teeth and jaws. This is used to identify pathology which is often missed by smaller intraoral films, or to plan particular procedures.
This equipment is from the latest generation with direct digital sensors which allow for a great reduction in radiation dose relative to conventional film.
This machine can also take special views of the teeth for adults and children who may have difficulty opening their mouth or holding the normal intraoral films comfortably. Any time of the day or night, we can take the x-rays we need on-site, in order to diagnose and treat you safely .
Intraoral X-Ray Machines
The intraoral x-ray machines are perhaps the second most commonly used item for diagnostic procedures. The machines selected for this practice have a wide range of adjustment to allow for the best settings to achieve high quality images with a very low radiation dose, and where clinically indicated we use what is known as rectangular collimation to further reduce the dose.
Dental Image Sensors
We’ve selected a high quality image processing system which delivers images for clinical use very rapidly. The system provides digital images which are archived on our servers and will always be available for future use and comparison. Should you, for what every reason, need to relocate you can ask us to provide you or your new dentist with a copy of these images free of charge.
Nitrous Oxide (laughing gas) [NOW AVAILABLE]
Our principal dentist has more than 18 years of experience with using nitrous oxide to help with the clinical care of patients. For some, it can provide relaxation to remove some of their anxiety around dental treatment, for others, there are aspects of dental treatment which they have difficulty tolerating.
The use of nitrous oxide for children and special needs cases suitable to be treated in this manner can prevent the need to expose the child to a general anaesthetic. For persons receiving Nitrous Oxide, we provide additional health monitoring during the procedure and are prepared to deal with all possible eventualities.
The formal term for using laughing gas for treatment is nitrous oxide relative analgesia.
Fact: you stay conscious and in control throughout.
Fact: Nearly everyone may be suitable for this.
Fact: It starts working within minutes.
Fact: You will be fully recovered at the conclusion of the appointment. You will be able to return to driving or work.
Fact: The majority of people will find this takes the edge off their anxiety and allows them to remain in control and receive the treatment they need.
We charge a modest fee to cover our costs for providing this treatment. If you think you may wish to use this nitrous oxide at your appointment, please discuss this further with our staff.
Prepared for Medical Emergencies
We have a Practice Registered Nurse employed and available to assist with the assessment of health status of patients. They will work with your managing physician, surgeons, GP, or other health practitioner or alternative health provider.
We have on the premises, emergency equipment including defibrillation and oxygen resuscitation, and staff qualified to use it. We are able to monitor your cardiac function by ECG, oxygenation, non-invasive blood pressure.
We have equipment to provide a screening test to provide an immediate point of care measurement of your BSL (immediate glucose reading), HbA1C (medium term glucose control), and INR (coagulation) allowing us to safely and more conveniently manage patients with complex medical problems requiring dental treatment.
Dental Air Compressor
Often an invisible part of the practice and forgotten, this is not the case here at Odontologica. Compressed air is the lifeblood of our equipment. We’ve selected a highly energy efficient compressor from Durr, which delivers the highest purity, bacteria free, dry air available. Its operating parameters are constantly monitored and can signal problems instantly.
The air quality you’ll receive from this compressor is much better than what you’ll breathe normally from the air around you.
Water filtration
The mains water supply passes through a multi-stage filtration to remove bacteria and sediment, and through additional stages to remove hardness, chemicals and some ions. The water delivered to our chair, sterilisers, disinfection machines all use the superior quality and purity of water of a quality just short of distilled water.
Dental Suction System
Our principal dentist has chosen a system with an enhanced control unit which continuously monitors and intelligently adjusts the speed of the system to maintain suction at the required level, but with lower electricity consumption and noise than most other units. That’s smart, and good for the environment.
Suction Line Amalgam Sediment Separator
As a matter of policy, this practice does not place dental amalgam restorations. Presently, there does not appear to be compelling evidence that for most people there is sufficient benefit in the elective removal and replacement of dental amalgams. Despite this, the hazard posed to the environment by mercury containing dental amalgam wastes resulting from the removal of existing dental fillings is real, as too is the mercury produced to support the Dental industry at large. At present, it is not compulsory under Queensland regulations to remove dental amalgam residue from waste water at the point of generation, effectively transferring this problem to the water treatment plant.
Dr. Draper, based on his extensive public health knowledge insisted that this wasn’t good enough. A high efficiency amalgam sediment separator manufactured by Durr is fitted to the suction system prior to the water being discharged. The residues are periodically collected and sent to an accredited facility for reclaimation and environmentally sensitive disposal. This separation is the best available today.
Sterilising Equipment
We take this very seriously. It’s a big deal for us. Great effort has been taken in selecting the best products available today.
We’re so proud of what we do, we think you should be able to learn more about what we do here at Odontologica to preserve the highest hygienic standards. Please refer to our section on sterilising for full coverage of our equipment and processes we employ to assure you the highest standards are employed to reprocess our clinical equipment.
To keep it to the point, all critical and semi-critical instruments will be sterilised after each use by means of a validated multi-stage process.
First there is manual cleaning, followed by a special machine assisted clean, followed then by a high level machine wash,disinfection and dry, followed then by what is known as a “B” class sterilising cycle and dry in our steriliser. This provides the best level of sterilisation routinely available and provides us certainty that not only the outside of the instruments are sterile, but also the insides and mechanisms of more complex items are also sterilised.
Few places outside of the operating theatre will match this level of hygiene. We’re so proud of our quality, that we offer this service to people and organisations through our brand Sterile+.
Laundry
We currently do our own laundry of reusable clinical linen items used within the practice. For this we use a Samsung front load washer with very high water and energy efficiency on the hygeinic setting, which provides a thorough cleaning and thermal disinfection of the linen used. Further sterilisation is performed on certain items requiring it as described before.
Energy, Water and Environment
The saying is that you can’t manage what you can’t see. We’re committed to minimising our impact on the environment. To help us achieve this, we have installed an e-gauge metering system which allows us to monitor our energy consumption on computer and make sensible decisions about our energy use and how we work. We’ve also installed high efficiency sensor lighting in our clinical rooms, offices and hallways to make certain that we don’t waste energy lighting empty rooms. Energy and water efficiency was considered during the selection of all major equipment, and we use balanced settings for our air conditioning to maintain comfort and a proper clinical environment.