|
Cost Comparison: Digital Dental vs Conventional Elastomeric Impressions
Can you save money deploying an intraoral scanner? We think so. Check out our detailed breakdown. Crunch the numbers. Did we get something wrong? Let us know. Find it useful? Discuss with your colleagues.
Use the Customize and Provide Feedback buttons below.
|
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Cost per impression side by side
|
Conventional Impression
Using elastomeric impression, using a mold to cast a 3 dimensional model of the jaw
|
Digital Impression
Using a digital scanner to create a digital file that can be manipulated by CAD software
|
Difference
Savings (or extra cost) from digital impressions. (Conventional - Digitsl)
|
|||
|
Fractional labor cost
Breaks down labor costs by chair time.
|
||||||
|
Material costs
These are all costs of supplies involved in elastomeric impressions, broken down to a per impression basis. These include such things as dispensers, mixing tips, tray and tray selection,light body, heavy body and adhesives.
|
$20.00
Cost per impression of materials used for elastomeric impression (see breakdown below)
|
$0.00
Digital files incur no material costs (see breakdown below)
|
$20.00
Cost savings per impression
|
|||
|
Shipping and handling costs
These are average cost of getting impression to and from lab.
|
$3.94
Elastomeric impression average round trip shipping costs. (see breakdown below)
|
|||||
|
Scanner costs
Any hardware scanner costs associated with this technology, on a per-impression basis
|
$0.00
Assumption here is no cost as dentist does not need to purchase a scanner. (see breakdown below)
|
$13.17
Amortized cost of scanner over 5 years based on 39 average impressions per day (see breakdown below)
|
($13.17)
Extra capital cost of purchasing scanner
|
|||
|
Total costs per impression
Totality of costs broken down by impression.
|
$38.37
Sum of all costs per impression using elastomeric process (see breakdown below)
|
$19.99
Sum of all costs per impression using digital process (see breakdown below)
|
$18.37
Savings per impression $38.37 - $19.99
|
|||
|
Monthly costs
Total by month
|
$1496.24
$38.37 per impression x 39 impressions per month
|
$779.78
Monthly sum of digital costs
|
$716.46
Monthly savings using digital scanner
|
|||
|
Additional monthly savings
Savings incurred due to possible discounts by lab on a monthly basis.
|
$0.00
Monthly sum of conventional costs
|
$468.00
Possible monthly savings on lab costs (see breakdown below)
|
$468.00
Monthly savings on lab costs of digital process (see breakdown below)
|
|||
|
Total monthly costs
All costs incurred from technology in accruing impressions totalled by month.
|
$1496.24
Monthly sum of conventional costs
|
$311.78
Monthly costs are reduced by assumed lab savings discount of 10% x 39 impressions x $120/impression
|
$1184.46
Total Monthly Savings After Reduced Lab Fees : $1496.24 - $311.78
|
|||
|
Annual costs
Total by year
|
$17,954.82
$38.37 per impression x 39 impressions /day x 30 days x x 12 months
|
$9,357.30
Annual sum of digital costs
|
$8,597.52
Savings per year exclusinve of possible lab discounts
|
|||
|
Additional annual savings
Savings incurred due to possible discounts by lab on an annual basis.
|
$0.00
No discount obtained from labs
|
($5616.00)
Monthly savings from lab x 12 . Assumes a 10% lab discount over elastomeric submissions
|
$5616.00
Potential annual lab savings based on 10% discount
|
|||
|
Total annual costs
All costs incurred from technology in accruing impressions totalled by year.
|
$17,954.82
Annual sum of conventional costs
|
$3,741.30
Annual sum of digital costs reduced by assumed discount of 10% on lab costs
|
$14,213.52
Difference of $17,954.82 - $3,741.30 = possible annual savings factoring in lab discounts
|
|||
| Cost Breakdown and Additional Customization | ||||||
| Average Dental Practice Statistics Used in Calculation | ||||||
|
Number of impressions per month
The dentists we have polled revealed average usage of 39 crowns per month. You may want to user our customization button below to modify this to your practice realities for an accurate estimate.
|
39
The dentists we have polled revealed average usage of 39 crowns per month. You may want to user our customization button below to modify this to your practice realities for an accurate estimate.
|
|||||
|
Average hourly salary of dental assistant
Hourly cost of assistant staff performing scanning or making impressions. Default value is $48000, broken down into an hourly wage.
|
$28.85 | |||||
|
Average hourly salary of other staff
Hourly cost of administrative staff handling clerical duties. Based on average wage of $32000 / year.
|
$15.38
Hourly cost of administrative staff handling clerical duties. Based on average wage of $32000 / year.
|
|||||
| Conventional Costs Using Impressions | ||||||
|
Chair time in minutes?
Traditional elastomeric impressions take most dental practices about 30 minutes of chair time.
|
30
Traditional elastomeric impressions take most dental practices about 30 minutes of chair time.
|
|||||
|
Shipping costs per impression
We've used commercial rates on priority mail parcel service at $7.95 , and assumed 2 impressions per package. Enter your rate here. Remember to divide by the number of impressions in each box. Also add in any return shipping fees charged by lab on a per impression basis
|
$1.99 | |||||
|
Average material costs per impression
Material costs per elastomeric impression. These include dispensers, mixing tips, tray and tray selection, light body, heavy body and adhesives. These are totalled, then divided by number of impressions done per month, to get cost per impression. Our default value is $780 /mo based on 39 crowns, or $20 an impression.
|
$20.00 | |||||
|
Average elastomeric impression office handling costs
Besides chair time costs, elastomeric impressions must be prepared, labeled, shipped and received. We used a $15.38 /hour wage for non-professional staff with a 20 minute total time for administrative tasks involved in elastomeric impressions process.
|
$3.94
|
|||||
| Intraoral Scanning Costs | ||||||
|
Chair time in minutes?
Most practitioners using a modern scanner will complete the scanning within 2-3 minutes, plus an additional 2-3 minutes for patient prep time.
|
6
|
|||||
|
Expected monthly scanner costs
We used $28,800 amortized over 5 years at a 7 percent interest rate. This is the average price of the top scanners we recently reviewed.
|
$513.60
|
|||||
|
Average supply costs per impression
Tip replacements, sterilization solutions, cheek retractors, etc. taken on a per impression basis.
|
$30.00
|
|||||
| Possible Additional Savings | ||||||
|
Average monthly lab bill
Average dental lab bills range from $3500 to $5000. We used 39 impressions at $120/each.
|
$4680.00
|
|||||
|
Lab bill discount for digital file transfers
Many labs will give you a discount for using an electronic file, as it saves them a lot of time, and reduces errors. We've seen labs discounting this from 5% to 20%.
|
10%
|
|||||
|
Savings per month
Dollar value of any savings from possible lab discounts. $4680 x 10% used as defaults.
|
$468.00
|
|||||
|
Savings per year
Annual savings in dollar terms based on discount rate and number of impressions. 10% x 39 impressions x 12 months
|
$5616.00
|
|||||
|
|