“Prime Computer products efficiently combine modernity with functionality.”
Dr.med.dent. Stephan Trabold, founder and owner of the dental practice Dr. Trabold
The starting position
Dr Trabold has relocated, rebuilt and expanded his dental practice within the Swiss town of St. Moritz. We took this opportunity to move to a digital dental practice. We, in turn, use this opportunity to show in a more detailed blog post how the transformation to a fully digitalised practice was implemented together with our partner IT dental.
In Dr Trabold’s former practice, a small peer-to-peer network with two iMacs was used at the reception and in the dentist’s office. The different folder structure on the two workstations was an efficiency problem. Both intraoral and extraoral X-ray images were developed with a Dürr Dental XR24 and evaluated via an X-ray image viewer. Medical records were created and managed in analogue form. In addition, the documentation of the hygiene area was done manually and had to be regularly backed up from the external storage medium to the PC.
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The requirements
Dr Trabold has formulated precise goals that he wants to achieve with a digitalised practice.
- Long-term digital solutions
- Central data storage
- Improved data security
- Multimedia streams for patients
- Increased efficiency in workflows
- Increased failure safety
- Reduction of human error sources
The implementation
To optimally fulfil these requirements, all parties involved had to be included already in the network planning. This applies in particular to the early and close cooperation with the Dental Depot, in this case, Curaden AG.
For the extraoral x-rays, an Orthophos SL 2D with the corresponding RCU was purchased from Curaden; for the intraoral x-rays, a Xios Scan imaging plate scanner and for diagnostics, the Sidexis 4 from Sirona. The hygiene area was equipped with the Melag MelaTrace documentation software. With the central label printer and the associated barcode scanner in the treatment rooms, the software can document the entire hygiene process in the digital patient card.
We adopted the existing practice management software and the staff can thus maintain their accustomed workflows. The software was expanded with the digital medical history of patients and several other modules.
For a digital practice, the right IT hardware is crucial. This is where Prime Computer’s fanless mini-PCs and servers come into play. The four treatment rooms, the dentist’s office, the reception and the sterilisation department were each equipped with a PrimeMini. At the heart of the network is a PrimeServer Pro.
The PrimeServer Pro for this dental practice is configured as follows:
| CPU PrimeServer Pro |
Intel Xeon D-2146NT: 8-core |
| RAM PrimeServer Pro |
4x 8GB |
| Storage (0,)1 | Samsung SSD DTC 3840GB (RAID 1) |
| Storage 2 | Sasmung SSD DTC 3840GB (Backup internal) |
| Storage 3 | Samsung SSD DTC 3840GB (Mulitmedia) |
| Storage M.2 | Samsung 970 PRO 1TB (Support) |
| Operating system |
Windows Server 2016 Standard |
| Server roles |
AD, DNS, DHCP, Print Server, WSUS, File Server |
The result
Dr Trabold’s practice can now work more integrally with the practice management software. All patients are digitally recorded and you can see the most important data at a glance. For x-rays, the patient data is opened in the practice management software and transferred to the x-ray software via a SLIDA interface. This can then be opened directly with the correct patient data. New x-ray images are automatically saved in the corresponding patient record and can be retrieved immediately throughout the network. Printing, including appointment cards, is possible from all workstations with PrimeMinis. Nevertheless, the administrator can set user rights and profiles individually for each workstation, increasing security.
The customer feedback
Dr Trabold previously worked with Apple hardware for 18 years. However, the changeover and familiarisation with the new digital dental practice with Windows PCs took just four days, as Dr Trabold reveals with a smile.
Dr Trabold sees the greatest immediate benefit of his connected digital practice in the increased efficiency and personal relief in terms of administrative work. He says: “I still have to walk a lot in my practice but only to see the patients and not from workstation to workstation, as everything works from every PC.” When asked about the Prime computer hardware, Dr Trabold says: “It’s nice and discreet, it’s small, it looks good, it works. We have achieved what we set out to do with the new digital practice and the Prime Computer products: To combine modernity and functionality efficiently.”
About the dental practice Dr. Trabold
The dental practice of Dr Trabold in St.Moritz offers comprehensive dentistry at the highest level. The services range from dental hygiene to oral surgery and emergency care. In addition to Dr Stephan Trabold, two more dentists work in the dental practice. The practice team also includes several dental hygienists and dental assistants. For the first programme of completely computer-assisted implantology in the canton of Graubünden, a university professor supports Dr Trabold’s team.
For Dr Trabold, it is important to run a practice where the employees enjoy working. “Patients notice when the people who work in our practice enjoy working here,” says Dr Trabold.
