Endorsements

I can now prep a tooth that is magnified as large as I want from a more natural, upright posture, while viewing the tooth on a LCD monitor. I love the fact that I can also attach my VELscope Cancer detection unit to the front of my MagnaVu to look at the tissue under magnification and take images of the magnified tissue under both white light and VELscope examination.

Finally, we have breakthrough technology that will help us take charge. The MagnaVu belongs and VELscope belongs in every dental office.

Joe Blaes DDS
Fenton, MO

Most impressive product at the CDA
Well, it's been a long two days. Hours upon hours of visiting booths, speaking with vendors, making the rounds. It was great to run into friends from DentalTown and the IDF throughout the show.

While I saw many interesting products and companies (and I'll have more info about them over the next few days), the product that interested me the most was the MagnaVu from Magnified Video Dentistry. Kind of tough to categorize this one, but basically, it's a mounted unit that is a microscope, intraoral camera, digital camera, and flat panel monitor all in one. I found my posture was excellent when using this machine and the ability to work off the monitor was incredible. The unit comes either as a wall or ceiling mount or on a cart (I would recommend the wall system). Image quality is outstanding. One of the coolest features was a little switch that you could flip that changed the view from mirrored to true image. Very impressive. While the cost of $32,000 certainly isn't cheap, when you add up the costs of a typical scope, intraoral camera, loupes, and digital camera, it's not really out of line at all.

Dr. Lorne Lavine
Sherman Oaks, CA

After years of sit-down dentistry, I had developed shoulder and back discomfort that was so severe, it became hard to work. Nothing helped-Exercises, cortisone injections, you name it, no improvement.

I didn't buy the MagnaVu with the sole idea that it would alleviate my problem. Not only has it improved my visualization, it has also eliminated my shoulder and back pain. Not improve, but eliminated! My work is easier, I can sleep at night and I can go workout at the gym without any discomfort. I can not believe the difference.

Edward M. Moore DDS
Dallas, Texas

I'd like to thank you for the extra time and effort you have put in to help Dr. Skinner gain comfort in using the MagnaVu. It truly is an awesome product and you obviously have a passion for its purpose and usefulness. Thank you for developing such a great product and for being so very kind, caring, and accommodating.

Kindest Regards ...
Donna
Fort Smith, AR

Hi,

Thought I'd send a few early thoughts about our use of the Magna-Vu scope system so far these last few weeks.

Originally, I thought we'd got the scope to improve our vision in close up, even beyond what our loupes could provide.

The more profound effect, however, has been on my back and the potential to practice dentistry longer than I thought would be possible.

Prior to scope use, every day by the afternoon, I'd start to feel a burn around the region of the right scapula, sometimes up into the shoulder area. I had been using loupes, usually the 4.5 Orascoptic religiously to keep sitting more upright.

Now, even though I am using several ops and only have the scope in one at this time, I am consistently making it through the afternoons with little or no squawking from my back and shoulder. That's pretty cool!

Anyhow, there have been some learning curve issues, but nowhere near what we have experienced with the fixed microscopes we've worked with, the Global or the Zeiss.

I have found though, that it's best if the assistant is trained to do all the scope setup, so I don't have to put down my instruments. She just looks in her monitor and can see what I'm seeing in mine and adjusts accordingly.

The final positioning is best done by physically making fine adjustments to the patient's head or jaws rather than twiddling with the camera itself.

I do, incidentally, like the function where I can simply throw a switch on the top of the camera and immediately flip the image. That way my hand on the screen works like it feels in the mouth.

I have heard from colleagues that there are some concerns about not having a 3D view with the single camera, but I can't say that this has been much of an issue for us at all. The eye seems to figure out 3D stuff with very few cues. One of my colleagues in New York, incidentally, only HAS one eye and can keep up with the best of us.

You were right, Randy, that this is a SYSTEM. Used with your very nice stool, the HealthChair, the arms do ten times less work and the back doesn't have to support all the cantilevered weight.

I have enjoyed the very simple image-store system you've built into the electronics and find we are saving many more pix just because we don't have to activate the IOC, sheath it and pick the danged thing up. I know it sounds silly, but it is the little things that keep us from using our equipment to maximum efficiency. Yes, we'll still use the Canon for very high res work, but the camera picture is adequate for a considerable percentage of images we need.

For teaching purposes, this system has really been more than excellent. What's more, the patient can hear me talking with staff about what we are both seeing and it can be quite instructive for them as well. And the staff can finally see in great detail some of the delicate and intricate things they'd only been seeing from a distance until now.

Generally, though, with the positioning of the screens as we currently have them, the patient does NOT see us prepping, etc. Only when we stop and let them turn their head to a frame-grabbed image do they normally get a look.

Thanks for listening. I think you have a very powerful tool here!

regards
Bill Domb DMD
Upland CA

I was looking for a system that gave me high magnification, without the constraints of a microscope, or having to wear heavy loupes that made my eyes and neck tired at the end of the day. I now use your MagnaVu to do the contorting to give me the views that I need without bending my body.

Antoinette Sheppleman DDS
Bossier City, LA

I purchased my MagnaVu to allow me to sit upright and to record procedures for my lectures. Your training and support have been phenomenal. Over the years, I have been attempting to incorporate four handed dentistry into my practice and in less than one week, the MagnaVu has accomplished that because the assistant can now see everything that I see for the first time.

Larry Korenman DDS
Richardson, TX

Our subscribers expect the highest quality resolution and the most accurate representation of clinical views and the MagnaVu has allowed us to raise the bar on the quality of content that we can deliver.

David Porritt
President National Dental Network

I was a competitive golfer and had to quit playing golf because of back and neck pain from years of bending over. I can now look up, lean back, and see better. I am excited about using my new MagnaVu’s and I am glad that I have invested in a healthier way to practice for the rest of my career.

Arthur Nelson DDS
McKinney, TX

I’ve experienced a lot of back pain over the years from sitting and bending in awkward positions all day. I have spent thousands of dollars for chiropractors, massage, and physical therapy. Now, by sitting up in the Healthchair and incorporating the vision enhancement that the MagnaVu provides, I can sit comfortably, be supported properly, and work all day.
It’s really a great way to spend a day in dentistry!

Gary Sanchez DDS
Albuquerque, NM

I love it! I don’t have to move as much. I can see better, and my back and arms are supported. I have more freedom.

Thanks MVD!
Kelly Davis, RDH
McKinney, TX

        I have been treating patients for 30 years in private practice, first as a hygienist for 9 years and 21 years as a dentist. It has been a fantastic career. Over the past 10 years, I developed chronic neck pain that plagued me during my day and followed me out of the office, impacting my whole life. I felt the pain was threatening to steal my livelihood. I began dreading going to work, and seriously considered the need to sell my practice. But how could I lose all this at the age of 50? Taking more Advil than I wish to admit, doctor visits, acupuncture, daily physical therapy and a cabinet full of prescriptions weren’t enough to keep me out of pain. Some of these approaches helped me work with the pain, but none of them took me out of pain.

        Why my neck hurt was not a mystery. The twisted positions I needed to put myself in hour after hour, day after day, year after year was to blame. I began researching products that I hoped would help, but everything I saw still held me in a fixed position for the procedure. When I saw an ad in a professional journal advertising the Magna Vu, it just made sense to me. Surgeons have been using something similar for quite a while. I made inquiries, talked to dentists who had purchased the Magna Vu, tested one, and concluded this was a purchase I needed to make. So in August 2007 my Magna Vu was installed. It sounds unbelievable, but my pain began immediately to disappear. My body began responding to the free mobility I was experiencing during procedures. I am able to use the Magna Vu 60 - 80% of the time allowing me to sit in a relaxed upright position looking straight ahead into the monitor. Because of the pain I was enduring, I have made a commitment to work with the Magna Vu as much as I can, and as a result I am now utilizing it with every patient. I can’t work without it. Prescriptions, Advil and acupuncture are becoming a thing of the past.

        My patients think it is great, too. I don’t have to convince them they need work, they see the broken teeth, the cracked fillings in vivid color on the monitor. All the close ups I show them work wonders as the pictures speak for themselves.

Jill C. Markos, D.D.S.
Vancouver, Washington
Columbia Dental School - Class of '87