Wish List with Dr. Zaki Kanaan

1 Leica M320 F12 dental microscope and Orascoptic 4.3 mag loupes.
Vision is everything in dentistry. A common myth is that a dental microscope is mainly for endodontists! It’s not. My main field is implants, but I use the Leica to carry out all aspects of dentistry at the highest levels of precision. You can take high-definition photos and video via infrared remote control. Its dual LED technology gives shadow-free, bright illumination with no fan, sound or heat, and 60,000 hours of light. Expensive, but worth it! Since I work in several practices, my trusted loupes and LED light are always to hand.

2 Canon digital SLR camera.
Dentistry without documentation is nothing. The ability to systematically document our cases is not only a prerequisite from a medicolegal perspective, it’s essential for any dentists worth their salt, whether they use cases for lecturing or not.

3 Zoom & NiteWhite.
Many dentists think that home whitening is best, and they’re not wrong; however, there is a large segment of the population that wants things done yesterday. (I work in the city!) Patients also like choice, and if a practice offers only home whitening they will often walk and choose a different one that offers in-office options. Brides and grooms leave things until the last minute, and lazy patients and handicapped patients alike all need help with whitening. In-office options such as Zoom offer a kick-start to whitening and a reduction in what patients will need to do at home.

4 Schick intraoral camera.
Photo documentation is essential in modern practice. The first question I asked when starting a new associate job was whether they had an intraoral camera that I could use. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t take the job! The Schick is the simplest and most affordable intraoral USB plug-in camera available. Reliability is superb; it never malfunctioned in more than 10 years at a previous practice. I always give patients mouth ‘tours’ during consultations and document treatment with photos before, during and after treatment. They love it!

5 Megagen Anyridge implant.
I’ve used many implants over the years, but none has come close to this one. This implant has all the characteristics that I want: platform shifting, internal connection, a thread design that gives exceptional primary stability and the ability to immediately restore, as well as the calcium-coated SLA surface for enhanced osseointegration. It is a thing of beauty! For me, this implant is the one that ticks all the boxes.

6 QuickLase.
The soft-tissue laser comes of age! I use it for a multitude of tasks, including troughing around crown preps, implant recovery, gingivectomy, crown lengthening, ulcer treatment, frenectomy, operculectomy and scar revision. A blood-free environment simplifies treatment and also improves healing and postoperative discomfort. With a multitude of presets, this is my No. 1 choice for soft-tissue lasers. How can you live without one?

7 Sirona CBCT Scanner.
Invaluable not just for implant dentistry but also for endodontics, periodontics, orthodontics and aesthetic dentistry—combined with intraoral scanners, it can provide a full digital workflow for your practice.

MY WISH LIST and IMMINENT ACQUISITIONS

Trios Intraoral scanner. Let’s face it—digital dentistry has come of age. More competition has resulted in closed systems now opening up. I was a little slow to jump on the digital bandwagon, but I feel the time is right. The future is digital—if you don’t embrace it, you’ll be left behind.

Ivoclar Programill. This five-axis milling unit is the latest one on the market in the U.K. With milling times of 12 to 17 minutes for fast and detailed milling, respectively, it’s the one to look out for. The ability to mill restorations in-house for patients in a single visit is, apart from being a real practice-builder, the pinnacle of where dentistry is today.

FormLab 2 printer. Apart from being used for implant guide manufacture and presurgical planning, printing is again coming on in leaps and bounds for a multitude of dental-related things. Soon in-house printers will be able to print provisional crowns and eventually definitive restorations, as well as dentures.