What Sets VISION’s Treatment Planning Tech Apart: A Dental Technician's View

by Maria Caro & SoftSmile Team in Jun 14 2023

The availability of digital treatment planning software is quickly increasing the efficiency of orthodontic treatment and improving patient outcomes. VISION, the dental treatment planning software by SoftSmile, possesses a beautiful and intuitive user interface and flexible integration options for practitioners.

We spoke with Maria Caro, who is the Digital Application & Education Specialist at SoftSmile about her experience as a dental technician developing treatment plans, as well as how VISION will help dental technicians create perfect smiles for patients with speed, precision, and flexibility.

What do you think sets VISION apart from other treatment planning software options currently available?

The platform allows for seamless communication between the lab and the clinician. I haven't seen that anywhere else. This permits clinicians to have access and control within every stage of the process. They present cases and can manipulate them and then have the production finalized with their final edits. A more complicated case can have multiple edits, and that can also be achievable with our platform.

Do any other currently available software options have a doctor-facing application as well as a web-based option? Or is that unique to VISION?

I think the fact that we have the portal itself is really unique. I haven't seen it with anybody else. I mean, people have viewers, or other software can provide a viewer so the doctor can just see what's happening or what is being presented to them. But the fact that with VISION you can manipulate, edit and send it back and then have multiple revisions if that's what the treatment requires is a really key component to our software.

Will having CBCT as part of the next version of VISION be a game-changer?

Absolutely. CBCT is really an important part of treatment for clinicians. CBCT is like an X-ray that identifies the roots of every tooth and the angulation of those roots. Because we're moving teeth, we need to understand the position of those roots and understand the health of the gum tissue in order to move them at a speed or a rate that will not cause any harm because moving teeth too fast can cause them to become loose permanently. VISION having CBCT is imperative to have within the treatment plan and having it available immediately is key.

How important is the visual look of VISION and what are the benefits of that to the UX/UI?

As a technician, we rely a lot on the visual aspect and VISION makes that easier. When we move teeth in VISION, we can see how fast it generates the changes on the gum tissues. We can see the movements immediately which is vital during treatment planning. We can't have delays and we can't have gum tissue adjusted in a non-uniform way. VISION does a really great job of having an intuitive and modern interface that helps technicians achieve those treatment plans effectively for the clinician.

Does the VISION UX/UI experience set VISION apart from other treatment planning software?

Yes. We get compliments on how fast the rendering of the soft tissue in VISION is because we're moving teeth and we're able to see immediately the changes to the gum tissue. So we do get a lot of compliments on the rendering and also on how quickly the movements are executed. We immediately see the change on the gum and we immediately see the change within the movements of the dentition.

Given your experience as a dental tech and having worked with VISION, do you think that time savings are something that sets it apart from currently available treatment planning software?

Yes, definitely. Some of the tools in VISION allow us to save time in positioning, in evaluating the interproximal reduction that's going to be done. We can customize those preferences for doctors. Instead of us taking more time to accomplish those goals that the doctors are aiming for, we can use the space manager. We can also manipulate the teeth timeline, which also speeds up the process. We can evaluate the speed at which teeth are moving, which again is also important for the clinician to make sure that the teeth are moving at an adequate rate and ensure everything stays healthy. So yes, absolutely–we save tons of time by using VISION.

Finally, can you speak to VISION's flexibility and how it can be integrated into different workflows, and the unique ways that VISION can be used by different clients based on their needs?

I think the VISION portal itself gives us those two options. It gives us the option for seamless communication between laboratory and clinician and also if you're just a clinician but you are working with a team that you really like and you can quickly send back and forth the changes that you want to accomplish, The portal enhances that communication. Again, it's important that we have that quick access. Clinicians want to be able to make changes and review their cases quickly. This really is a great option for those small and large customers.

Maria serves as the Digital Application & Education Specialist at SoftSmile and is responsible for training doctors and their staff on VISION’s digital processes and educating dental labs on integrating VISION into their workflow.