The importance of an accessory screen in endodontics
In this post I would like to talk about why an accessory screen, as much bigger the better, is very important for me on a root canal treatment.
Documentation: An accessory screen allows you to take better photos and videos. One disadvantage of microscopes that do not have built in cameras and need an accessory camera is the difficulty of “pairing” what you see through the eyepieces and what your camera captures through the beam splitter. That image you want to capture and document, should be the same focused image through your eyes and through the camera, but requires a perfect configuration thereof, and the correct setting of the diopter correction of the eyepieces. The camera captures the image of one eye, either the right or left depending in which side of the microscope the camera is. When we look through the microscope we have stereoscopic vision, we see with both eyes at the same time, and is our brain with his own corrections who made a sharp image in the end. The problem here is that without that perfect “pairing” between camera, eyepieces, eyes and brain if we need to document the most tiny detail, that is only focused in one particular millimeter depth of field, we may find that the image of the detail that we wanted to document is not focused at all.
One of the options is trying to focus through the LCD of the camera, the problem is that the size of the LCD is small and usually is in a position that is not comfortable to focus through it.
For me the solution was to connect the microscope to a 55″ screen that I have in front of me. Through that screen it is very easy to document every detail and get good quality photos and videos with the details that I want to show totally focused.
Assistants: Working with a large screen allows my assistant see what I see so she can help me better. Your assistants are part of the treatment, involve them and show what you see motivates them to work. Another advantage is that they can avoid look directly to the work field for more time. This prevents from suffering headaches and vision problems as the light source of the microscope is very bright and brings all these problems after a long work session.
Education: A large screen allow me to teach and train other dentists who want to learn about endodontics.
These are the three reasons why I love working with a large accessory screen.
PhD. MSc. Dr. Pablo Salmeron.