A $4 FIX FOR AN $84,000 PROBLEM

At SmileIT, our mission is to always provide the dental practices we support with our best service and advice and occasionally, we are tasked with going above and beyond the call of duty.

E&M Dental have been a loyal and valued client of SmileIT since we were chosen to be a part of their build team for their first office in 2011 – and then again their second location in 2015 – so our entire team knows this practice and their technologies inside and out – and that deep relationship paid off in a very big way!

THE PROBLEM

The practice’s 10-year old CBCT x-ray system stopped working and for any busy practice that depends on these technologies for high-value implant placement appointments, production at this practice was significantly impacted.

REMOTE REPAIR EFFORTS

Our senior dental IT help desk team – all with dozens of years of experience installing and supporting advanced technologies in the digital dental office – quickly exhausted all possibilities of getting this device back online as the issue was identified as a malfunctioning component inside of the CBCT unit that would require a dental equipment technician to make the repair.

A SEARCH FOR CONVENTIONAL SOLUTIONS

Because of the CBCT unit’s age, warranty status and availability of parts, the office manager’s search yielded the following options:

A replacement touch panel quoted at $18,000 (if the part could be located), or
Replacing the entire CBCT unit with a new, larger field of view model for $84,000

ESCALATION:

As the search for reasonable solutions yielded few options, the office manager contacted her SmileIT Account Manager for escalation and advice.

REDDIT TO THE RESCUE

Sensing the desperation in the office manager’s voice hoping for a “miracle solution”, the SmileIT Account and Tech teams collaborated –
and their efforts paid off!

A Reddit search uncovered a post from a user halfway around the globe describing an identical problem and the solution that revived their CBCT
x-ray unit!

ARMED WITH INFORMATION

After reviewing the situation with the practice owners – everyone agreed that SmileIT – despite having no prior experience with this specific repair – would attempt to bring this CBCT back to life – using the Reddit post, the manufacturers documentation and the dozens of years of experience and hundreds of CBCT units they have installed with virtually every dental equipment dealer, as their guide.

WORKING THROUGH THE PROCESS

One of our most senior dental field service IT technicians methodically disassembled the unit, documenting every step in the process.

THE CULPRIT

Inside of the CBCT units touch panel was a dead CMOS battery. When the battery failed, the basic configuration information was lost, preventing the CBCT unit from properly powering on and connecting to its acquisition system.

TOUCHDOWN!

After installing a new $4 CR-2025 battery, reassembling the unit and finalizing the setup with a brief call to the manufacturers tech
support team, the CBCT system was powered ON and fully operational!

A HAPPY CLIENT:

With the CBCT unit back in service, our Account Manager was able to reprioritize the Windows 10 End of Life plan – something that would not
have been possible if the practice was forced to replace their CBCT system.