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Dentist Marcos White explains his “march into digital” with iTero intraoral scanning

Marcos White practice owner and lead cosmetic dentist at The Courtyard Clinical Academy talks about the unstoppable march of intraoral digital scanning. Marcos invested in his first intraoral scanner in June 2013.

Since then he has owned and tested all of the three major scanning systems but has settled on iTero and only uses these scanners throughout his solely digital practice and has seen his revenue increase by a hefty 33% in the last 12 months. He explains his march into digital... 

Everything else is unchanged. It’s the digital angle. And you can only understand what I mean by that, if, as a dentist, you appreciate that a scanner is not just a digital replacement for impression taking. It is a complete rethinking of the entire restorative process.

You cannot underestimate the power

From consultation, through consent and digitally simulated outcomes our patients are more informed and ask for more comprehensive solutions to their problems. You cannot underestimate the power of patients seeing their own teeth, or missing teeth, in full colour on screen.

With our on-site digital lab we take these scans to produce digital imagery of a range of possible treatment outcomes using different techniques. Patients no longer have to trust the dentist. They trust their own eyes, both in terms of the problems they see, and the solutions they are presented with.

The second, and arguably most impressive fact is that Marcos has not needed to take on any additional personnel in the last 12 months.

That was what blew our minds when we were looking at the figures. Not only have we been busier with more comprehensive work – but we’ve been more efficient in delivering it.

Marcos’ experience with different scanning systems and his constant drive to improve and innovate, led him to build his in-house digital lab which fabricates all his implant, veneer and restorative work, and for some other digital dentists across the country.

It just grew. We’d meet like-minded digital dentists who were struggling to get their labs to push forward digitally and we’d offer to lend a hand. Because of our unique perspective of clinical, lab and digital we can mentor dentists with their workflows, and trouble-shoot all the common issues they come up against.

The surprise for many dentists is that they think they can continue with their normal style of dentistry and just scan it. But to get true value and efficiency, you’ve got to rebuild your skills from the ground up. Re-learn.

Digital Dental Courses

Marcos now runs courses that are said to “Peel back the curtain” on a broad gamut of the latest digital technology using iTero, including: digital consults, gaining consent, and digital treatment planning. He deconstructs veneer, implant and Invisalign appointment workflows and shows how dentists can halve the length, and sometimes the number of appointments.

Jayme Adams, dentist at 360 Dental Care enthused: “Thank you for putting on a fantastic day. We both really enjoyed it and have lots of ideas we are going to implement straight away. We were both extremely impressed with your team, systems and place.

“Also, we would like to thank you for your generosity in sharing your secrets to success. It's rare to find such abundant attitudes. I genuinely feel the day we spent is going to make a significant impact to our business.”

Marcos’ courses can be booked online and are run from his practice and training facility in Yorkshire. Delegates are able to see live demonstrations and learn how to replicate the results using step-by-step protocols. Videos and case slides are also accessible through the course Whatsapp group which facilitates ongoing mentoring.

Marcos concluded: “We felt we had to provide this training. The requests we had to share our knowledge was voracious, and for the most part it’s people who already have scanners but don’t know how to utilise the full power of the tool they’ve got who are keenest to attend.”

For more information about joining the courses visit www.digitaldentalschool.co.uk, or email Marcos at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Visit www.itero.com or www.facebook.com/iterodigitalimpressionsystem/ for the latest news on the iTero Element scanner portfolio.