Here's the opinion I've earned after six years of purchasing equipment for a three-location dental group: most practices buy technology in the wrong order, and the consequences show up in ways that never appear on the invoice.
In March 2021, I signed off on a Dentsply Sirona Primescan and the DS Core cloud workflow for our main clinic. I'd read all the marketing. The AI machine-learning features — the way the scanner flags incomplete margin lines in real time, the prep analysis that's gotten visibly better with each software update — genuinely impressed me at the demo. The problem wasn't the technology. The problem was that we were scanning maybe eight patients per week. Only one of our three associates had ever worked with an intraoral scanner before. Our front desk was still printing and scanning everything. The sterilization workflow was beautiful. The digital workflow was a metaphor.
Eighteen months later, the scanner was mostly used for orthodontic records, and I estimated we'd wasted roughly $47,000 — purchase cost, subscription fees, training time, and the hidden one: staff hours spent fighting a system that was ahead of our capability. I've personally made — and documented — five significant purchasing mistakes in my career, and this was the most expensive one. I'm a procurement coordinator. It's literally my job to assess this stuff. That one still stings.
The Integration Trap
The DS Core platform is genuinely impressive. That doesn't mean it's right for every practice right now.
Let me be specific about what DS Core does, because I meet a lot of colleagues who think it's just cloud storage for scans. It's not. It connects Primescan intraoral captures, CBCT and panoramic imaging, case design, and chairside milling into one workflow. In a practice that's truly digital-first, it's best-in-class, and Dentsply Sirona is one of the only manufacturers whose ecosystem covers the full loop from image capture to restoration delivery.
As of January 2025, the Primescan AI machine-learning features are ahead of where they were in 2021. The margin detection is more conservative — in a good way, it doesn't overpromise — and the system improves with each case. That's genuinely impressive technology.
But here's what nobody put on the slide deck: the platform only pays for itself when your scanning volume and staff skills cross a real threshold. From the outside, it looks like buying the flagship scanner makes you a digital practice overnight. The reality is that a digital practice is a set of habits, not a hardware line item. I watched a colleague repeat my exact mistake in 2023 — his two-doctor clinic bought a full Dentsply Sirona digital package before implementing a basic digital patient intake form. Sixty percent of the platform went unused for a year. The subscription fees didn't pause.
The Cheap Tools That Matter More Than AI
People assume expensive technology is what protects your patients and your margins. My biggest regret from 2022 says otherwise.
We installed a blood pressure monitor in our hygiene suite because the state inspection checklist required one. Not because anyone believed it mattered clinically. Then in September 2022, a patient — a very polite, very observant woman — mentioned that our readings seemed "always a bit high." We finally tested the old aneroid sphygmomanometer against a new automatic monitor. The old unit was reading 12 to 15 mmHg high. On a patient near the hypertension threshold, that difference can change a dentist's clinical decisions. We'd been running a quiet liability for years because a dull piece of equipment got zero attention.
Dental loupes are the same story. Our doctors were happy to approve a $30,000+ imaging investment, but the loupes they wore every day were seven years old, had hazy optics, and one pair was held together with what looked suspiciously like lab putty. An associate finally got new loupes in early 2024 — $1,400 with proper illumination and correct working distance. Her exact words after her first restoration: "I can actually see what I'm doing." That quote is still on my desk.
I'm not saying don't buy the scanner. I'm saying the sequence is wrong in most practices I've observed. Loupes, a calibrated blood pressure monitor, and working suction will do more for patient safety and clinician satisfaction per dollar than any AI feature will.
"What Is a Dental Unit" Is a Question You Should Ask Out Loud
This sounds like a beginner's question. I asked it in 2019 — well, I asked a version of it, and I got a very confident, very incomplete answer. It cost us $6,800 in retrofits and roughly six weeks of scheduling chaos.
A dental unit is the chair, the delivery system (where handpieces and instruments mount), the operating light, and the air/water lines integrated into one platform. The key word is integrated. We bought a chair we loved aesthetically, but the delivery system only fully accommodated one handpiece brand — and we'd standardized around a different brand across all three locations. Try explaining that to two other practice managers and asking them to share spare handpieces. The parts took six weeks. Staff morale took a hit. Entirely avoidable.
Since then, I ask every vendor three questions before anything gets near a purchase order:
- What does this require from the rest of the setup? Not just power and water — what else has to change?
- What breaks first? (The rep will be more honest than you'd expect.)
- Who is responsible when two of your products don't integrate cleanly? (This one makes the room go quiet. Silence is informative.)
"You Were Just Early, Not Wrong"
A technology-forward colleague heard this entire story and said: "You're describing an implementation failure, not a product failure. The trend line is clear. You were just early."
He's mostly right. I don't dispute that integrated digital workflows are where the industry is heading, and Dentsply Sirona is well positioned to deliver that loop. But the "just early" framing misses a real operational cost: when you install an advanced system before your team is ready, you train them to be cynical about the next upgrade. The assistants who struggled with the DS Core workflow in 2021 built workarounds instead of skills. When we finally solved the training and volume problem in early 2024, we had to undo two years of bad habits. You can't put that on a capital budget form, and no vendor demo will ever show it to you.
Also, let me correct one thing I might have implied: none of this is a criticism of Dentsply Sirona as a manufacturer. I still recommend their equipment — the Primescan AI features, the DS Core platform, the imaging line — for practices with the right profile. I've toured their training facility and came away impressed. The issue was never the product. The issue was the match between the product and our actual readiness.
My Recommendation, With the Limits Stated
Buy the Dentsply Sirona digital ecosystem if you're scanning 15 or more cases per week, your team already uses digital tools daily, and you can name one person accountable for learning the platform deeply.
Don't buy it yet if you're scanning a handful of cases per week, if your records are still largely paper-based, or if nobody on staff has used a digital scanner in a previous role. For that practice, the better investments are the unglamorous ones: proper loupes for every clinician, a blood pressure monitor that's calibrated and tested quarterly, handpieces that work, and a genuine understanding of what your dental unit includes — and what it doesn't.
I genuinely believe the DS Core platform and the broader Dentsply Sirona ecosystem are the future. I also believe the future arrives faster when you prepare the ground first. I paid the tuition — I'd rather you read it here than learn it the way I did.
Product and feature information based on Dentsply Sirona documentation as of January 2025. AI capabilities evolve through software updates; verify current functionality with an authorized representative. Pricing varies by market and configuration.
