Chelly Smith has been the marketing manager at Planmeca USA Inc for the past 7 years. Smith’s experience includes working in sales and marketing for Wal-Mart, Seymour, and State Farm Insurance. She currently manages an in-house team that produces Planmeca’s product launches. She also develops sales tools, coordinates conventions, and creates ad materials.

OP: What types of x-ray machines does your company provide to orthodontic practices?

Smith: Planmeca provides film-based and digital ProMax and Proline XC Pan and Pan/Ceph x-rays.

OP: What makes the ProMax Digital Dual Sensor Pan/Ceph x-ray different from other systems on the market?

Smith: The ProMax Digital Pan/Ceph x-ray offers two fixed digital sensors—a Pan sensor and a Ceph sensor—or one transportable digital sensor for Pan and Ceph with real-time imaging; a color graphic user interface with an image-preview feature; and an optional Digital Transtomography program, which allows adjustable slices of 1 mm, 3 mm, 6 mm, 9 mm, 18 mm, and 36 mm. The x-ray also provides a Bitewing Program that decreases the radiation more than the low doses offered by the ProMax. The system can be upgraded to Digital Cone Beam Volumetric Tomography (CBVT).

OP: What do you think will be the next revolutionary technology in orthodontic diagnostics?

Smith: Just as digital imaging revolutionized dental diagnostics over the past 5 to 6 years, CBVT will enhance current diagnostic capabilities beyond anything that has been available before, especially in the areas of oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthodontics, and implantology.

OP: Does Planmeca have an x-ray that provides CBVT imaging?

Smith: The ProMax 3D CBVT offers 3D imaging and scanning at a rate of 18 seconds per image with the smallest footprint of any 3D imaging unit available. The system’s flat-panel, semiconductor-based sensor provides high-sensitivity, clear-image-resolution, and 1:1-ratio images. It is available as a stand-alone unit shipped complete, or as an upgrade to a pre-existing ProMax x-ray.