The spirit of Edison also lives in our annual overview, in alphabetical order, of some of the finest new dental products on the market this year.

BLOCK LOCKER

ZIRC

A wise man—well, rapper Huey, at any rate—once advised us to “pop, lock and drop it.” Well, Huey, how about if we block-lock and don’t drop it? We’ll organize it, too, with Block Locker, Zirc’s new hanging cabinet that enables doctors everywhere to impose order upon their CAD/CAM milling blocks and accessories.

Block Locker comes in two cabinet sizes: large (12 organizer trays, fits up to 48 packages of blocks) and small (six trays, up to 288 individual blocks). It comes only in dark slate gray, but a rainbow palette of drawer colors will add pop to your practice all the same. Zirc also provides custom tags online so you can create labels in varying shades and translucencies. Put it all together and you’re sure to be the sleekest, best-organized dentist on (sorry) the block.

CS 3100 MILLING SYSTEM

CARESTREAM DENTAL

So quiet and compact you can place it anywhere, even chairside, with no compressed air, water supply or drain required—yet there’s no sacrificing performance or versatility with Carestream Dental’s latest. Three fabrication options—milling, grinding, carving—deliver hybrid resin and ceramic restorations ideal for full-contour crowns, inlays, onlays, veneers and three-element bridges. It’s also designed to adapt to new materials, making it a smart long-term investment.

To use it, transfer the crown design to the mill, insert the block, close the door and push start. Automated block selection reduces error risk, while the touch-screen display is fully intuitive. Milling parts are physically separated from the control section, eliminating possible contamination of electronic components.

Featuring a four-axis brushless motor and an exceptionally precise Jäger spindle capable of 100,000 rpm, the CS 3100 produces optical anatomical results. Its unique carving mode expedites milling, for restorations finished in as little as an hour. Modestly proportioned and durable, it’s an ideal solution even if saving space—unlike saving time, money and effort—isn’t a huge priority.

DENTAPEN

SEPTODONT

Remember those newfangled mechanical pencils you had in fifth grade, the ones that made you feel like the coolest person in class? Want to feel that way again?

Kit yourself out with Dentapen, Septodont’s newest-gen power injector for dental anesthetic. No training is needed; this effortless stylus does all the work for you, with buttons for speed selection, mode selection, rewind retraction (to insert new cartridges like those fragile pencil leads) and self-aspiration activation.

Cut the cord, the console and the foot-pedal action too: With no pressure on the needle (or the hand that moves it), Dentapen makes injection protection a cinch. It’s small, lightweight and will accommodate any way you prefer to hold it.

Accessories include seven finger grips, seven cartridge holders, three batteries and 25 protective sleeves. In its gee-whiz functionality and ease of use, Dentapen will take you right back to those clickety-clack pencils of yore. Though we don’t think you can use it to write the name of your latest crush on the bathroom wall.

GREEN CT 2

VATECH AMERICA

Low radiation doses and high image quality used to be mutually exclusive, but the dental boffins at Vatech have leveraged their considerable experience to develop a true advance in X-ray technology. Making use of sophisticated image capture and processing, Green CT 2 delivers clinically diagnosable scans with up to 70 percent less radiation.

Vatech was first-to-market with a three-in-one digital X-ray system, and Green CT 2 builds on that rich history with four-in-one capability with PANO, optional CEPH, CBCT and MODEL Scan. The result: brisk 1.9-second rapid-scan CEPH, and similarly impressive numbers for CBCT and PANO. There’s also 3D scanning for storing plasters as digital models and ART-V metal-artifact reduction for enhanced visualization.

Green CT 2 also offers a range of views and minimizes exposure to areas not in the field of interest; choose from among 18×10, 16×9, 13×10, 12×9, 8×9 and 5×5 depending on your diagnostic need. It’ll cover the full arch region, sinus and left/right TMJ, and suits most oral-surgery cases as well as multiple-implant surgeries.

IMPREGUM

3M

Life is all about the little things, no? Petting a dog, a baby’s laugh, a warm shower after a long day . . . and quick-setting digital impressions. (Our fantasy life is vivid.) 3M’s new Impregum is the perfect impression material to capture every last detail in a patient’s mouth.

Impregum takes the low-commitment road to comfort. With its 45-second working time and two-minute set time, you can proceed slowly and steadily to win the race. It even has a fresh minty taste. (Tell your patient it’s a gooey mojito.)

Worried about wetness? Impregum is packed with anti-moisture polyether material that displaces blood and saliva upon contact. Especially in subgingival cases, Impregum is excellent at providing void-free detail reproduction.

It’s CAD/CAM–compatible, too, and makes only as big a footprint as you want it to. 3M’s aptly named Super Quick material is available in heavy-, medium- and light-body consistency for single-phase impressions. It’ll make quick work of your day—enabling you to trade that fake mojito for a real one sooner than you thought.

PIEZOTOME CUBE

ACTEON

Let’s call this one bad to the bone: Acteon’s new Piezotome Cube is an ultrasonic bone-surgery device that will change the way you think about extractions.

How? By making them less traumatic and more predictable. The Cube’s high-frequency vibrations won’t damage soft tissue, a big boon to post-op pain prevention. Its Dynamic Power System Inside is always on watch, constantly monitoring tip pressure to ensure appropriate power. It also comes with an LED handpiece and an extensive range of surgical tips adaptable to your patient’s anatomy.

If someone’s already anxious about getting in the chair, there’s no reason to make it worse, right? (You’re not sadistic, after all.) The Cube helps promote compassionate clinical care with great outcomes and enhanced healing, with significantly less swelling, pain and complications. Let’s amend what we said earlier, then: Acteon’s Piezotome Cube is, in fact, good—very good—to the bone.

SOLEA 3

CONVERGENT DENTAL

You might say patients want everything free when they come in to the dentist’s office: pain-free, blood-free, needle-free, drill-free, anxiety-free. Well, give the customers what they want—with the Solea 3, their appointments will be pain-free (in the psychic sense) for you as well.

You’ve heard the adage “work smarter, not harder”? Solea obliges, with the quietest, fastest laser-based system available. It’s virtually anesthetic-free, too, successfully treating some 99.2 percent of cavities in early trials without the use of local numbing agents.

Solea packs a punch, but it’s a subtle one: 15 percent slimmer than previous models, it takes up less space in the operatory and is easier to navigate around your space. Its software includes customizable options, user-specific profiles and faster startup. Your patients might not be able to avoid their bill, after all, but this will help keep their visit with you as “free” as is humanly possible.

SCAN MATE

ARMOR DENTAL

Bonnie, meet Clyde. Scan Mate, as the name indicates, is a scanner’s new partner in crime—an autoclavable device that reduces scan time for crowns, bridges, implants and orthodontics alike.

Designed to efficiently follow along anywhere around the mouth during an intraoral session, the latex-free, one-piece Scan Mate works for any retraction need. There’s not enough room in the mouth for scanners, fingers and mirrors alike, so Scan Mate comes equipped with a soft, pliable, non-reflective tip, bendable neck and ergonomic handle. It has a comfy grip and a thin silhouette that takes up little space. It’s perfect, therefore, for your next cross-country crime spree—or, you know, just plain old excellent dental work.

SOLEIL 770 CURING LIGHT

BENCO DENTAL

Performance and versatility, tested and confirmed by The Dental Advisor: Soleil 770 is a true ultra-premium curing light that packs feature after useful feature into a sleek design. (Benco Dental, the manufacturer of Soleil 770, is the publisher of Incisal Edge.)

With seven modes of operation, Soleil 770 adapts to virtually any need. Ramp mode gradually increases light intensity to help ensure bond strength by reducing both initial stresses between the composite and margins, and polymerization shrinkage. For patients sensitive to heat, a soft-cure mode offers more gentle ramping. Its superior depth of cure (2.57 millimeters in three seconds) is highest-level performance, and dual-range wavelength (395-430nm; 440-480nm) ensures compatibility.

Soleil’s low-profile head houses a large 12mm tip. Combined with a 360-degree rotating light guide, it makes accessing hard-to-reach areas no problem at all. Despite the numerous features, all functions are controlled with just two buttons. It’s exceptionally durable, with a full stainless-steel head and covered membrane panel for better cleaning and infection control. Soleil means “sun,” after all—and this curing light will surely brighten your workday.

TRIAUTO ZX2

MORITA

Move over, Lassie—the TriAuto ZX2 handpiece is man’s new best friend. Compact and cordless, with a built-in apex locator, it has a motor for apical patency and flawless shaping of the glide path.

TriAuto is highly responsive, allowing for subtle and delicate file manipulation, replicating precisely the movement of a dentist’s hand. It’s a safe, efficient method for canal shaping, helping make the high-pain root canal a thing of the past. There’s no need to buy additional specialty equipment, either. It can accommodate rotary files as small as #10; standard NiTi files of size #20 or smaller, or stainless-steel files #15 and smaller, are fine as well.

The motor alternates between forward and reverse with great sensitivity to prevent file breakage and jamming during shaping. The location of the file within the canal is monitored in real time, too—even in a curved canal. That means TriAuto can help in ways that even Lassie can’t. Remember that ahead of your next root canal, Timmy. And stop getting into so much trouble.