CAD/CAM

Back when it was founded in 1987 the company was known as Implant Innovations Inc., but a lot changes in 25 years. Now as it prepares to celebrate its 25th anniversary, the company goes by BIOMET 3i and has grown from the small firm founded by periodontist Dr. Richard Lazzara and engineer Keith Beaty to a global company with more than 1,000 employees.

You’ve been thinking about adding new technologies to your practice, maybe a laser or chairside CAD/CAM, but you just haven’t made the move. You like the idea of it, but you’re just not sure it’s worth the investment.

In an effort to make it easier for dental labs and production centers to incorporate their laser sintering systems, AMT Inc. has secured financing plans through Highland Capital Corporation to allow dental labs to lease the production systems for 60-month contracts.

Staying competitive in the current economy has increased the need for an alternative to gold-based restorations. I am constantly thinking of ways to use my CAD/CAM system to streamline and improve productivity while maintaining and ensuring quality.

Giving the public a peak into the company's production process, ClearCorrect LLC, recently announced that 3D printers from Objet Ltd. are an integral part of the production of the company's clear orthodontic aligners.

In promotions news, Wieldand Dental Systems kicked off the month of June announcing the promotion of Stanley Maragos to the position of Vice President. He had previously served as the company's General Manager.

The state of the dental laboratory industry always has been evolving, with some areas evolving faster than others depending on the needs and focus of labs, whether those needs be to increase productivity, quality or both. We have seen porcelain, impression materials, die-stone and other staples make dramatic advancements. But while these advancements enabled us to improve our product, our techniques largely remained the same. We waxed, invested, cast, completed temporaries, baked and stained porcelain the way it had been done for many years. 

Straumann® CARES® System 7.0 software gives users full flexibility to choose their workflow-validated or external (open)-through a single system. The validated workflow provides direct access to precise, high-quality materials and restorations through Straumann’s centralized milling facilities and pre-set design parameters. Customized abutments for Straumann bone level and tissue level implant platforms are available in Zr02 and Ti materials.

The DPR Technology Census has been a cornerstone of the DPR Editorial Calendar for a number of years. Part of what makes the tech census a must-read year after year is the fact that it helps dentists benchmark themselves. It's not always about what technology is available, but who is using it, who plans to use it, and what barriers to entry exist.

In this live interview from CDA 2012, Dental Lab Products Managing Editor Noah Levine talks about Sirona's inLab 4.0 software with Jeff Youngerman, Territory Manager for Sirona Dental Systems. "This is the first time that Sirona has produced a software that is really 100 percent lab software," said Jeff Youngerman. "We've taken it to the next level."

Full Contour is a business that exists in the cloud and other digital spaces. Just five years ago it would have been extremely difficult to create a Web-based digital design service, but today Full Contour is thriving thanks to the rapid expansion of cloud computer and a world connected via the Web.

High tech for a dental lab doesn’t have to mean CAD/CAM, and more importantly it doesn’t have to come with a wallet-draining pricetag. Plenty of the cutting edge technologies ready to help you manage the business and make work at the bench more efficient can be accessed for free.

Combining 5-axis wet/dry milling with the wet-grinding technique, Amann Girrbach’s Ceramill Motion 2 can be used as a purely dry or wet system or in combination mode. In combination mode, the lab technician can easily change between wet and dry modes by exchanging the blank holder depending upon the indications for each case.

Delcam will launch major upgrades of its software for the design and manufacture of dental implant restorations with the release of the 2012 versions of its DentCAD and

CAD/CAM has become a way of life for some technicians and dental labs, but even labs with little to no CAD/CAM investment have felt the impact from the technology and the material and restoration options it’s made available. Numerous outsource options and workflows are available, ranging from sending a model to be scanned, designed and milled by an outsource partner, to investing in a scanner for in-house design, to buying into a complete system with on-site milling. It comes down to each lab finding what level of integration fits best.

Unlike the majority of his peers in dental school at the New York University College of Dentistry, Dr. Zuckerberg wasn’t pursuing dentistry as part of a family legacy. On his first day of dental school, talk of bridges had him thinking about the Brooklyn versus Verrazano.

Applying New Technologies: 3Shape Dental System 2010 The 3Shape Dental System™ 2010 offers extended digital capture functionality with the D710 scanner’s Multi-Die Scanning capabilities as well as enhanced features through the DentalManager data management application, DentalDesigner CAD software, and CAMbridge manufacturing application.

Dental Lab Products | April 2009 Forward Trends: Veneers New Face of Veneers Advanced materials, technologies, and procedures for creating esthetic, durable veneers can expand profitable revenue streams even in a tight cosmetic market. by Richard Palmer Photo: Den-Mat Corp.

With the ability to print highly accurate ultra-thin 16μ layers, Objet’s Eden260V™ 3D printing system helps to provide labs with the ability to rapidly manufacture stone models. The system produces models with exceptionally fine details and smooth surfaces.

January 2011 | Dental Lab Products The CAD/CAM Chorus Weighing the options Sara Kazan, CDT – President, Nellmar Laboratory by Noah Levine, Senior Editor

You probably can’t do everything all by yourself, and you might not want to even if you could. The good news is there are plenty of outsource laboratories-right here in the U.S.-willing and able to help you. Some can help with everything, while others specialize in helping with certain case types or with manufacturing all, or just part, of the restorations you need.

January 2011 | Dental Lab Products The CAD/CAM Chorus Working out the kinks Robert Lash – President, Moskey Dental Laboratories by Noah Levine, Senior Editor

It’s not uncommon for a lab with a complete in-house CAD/CAM system to open up excess capacity as an outsource option for other labs. That can be a way to maximize return on the technology investment, but it doesn’t make the lab into a milling center. Creating a milling center in the truest sense of concept means building a business dedicated to providing dental labs with access to CAD/CAM produced parts that can then be finished into restorations ready for the prescribing dentist to place into the patient’s mouth.

San Jose, Calif.-Align Technology, Inc. today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Cadent Holdings, Inc., a leading provider of 3D digital scanning solutions for orthodontics and dentistry based in Carlstadt, NJ.

Long Island City, NY (August 26th, 2010) – Sirona Dental Systems (Nasdaq: SIRO) today announced the availability of the inLab Multilayer Design Option, which utilizes new VITA Rapid Layer Technology, during the CEREC® 25th Anniversary Celebration, a milestone event celebrating the 25-year anniversary of its CEREC CAD/CAM system.

No one really knows what’s coming just around the corner tomorrow-let alone throughout the next 12 months-but proceeding without even a general concept of what might be on the way can be just as risky.

With the economy skittering along on the edge of recession it’s no surprise many dental labs took a cautious approach to major purchases during 2011. The year may have started with hints of optimism in a rebound just around the corner, but as the months dragged on and that rebound refused to solidify, it makes sense that many labs are ready to tread lightly as 2012 arrives.

Lava™ Design Software 7 from 3M ESPE offers a new and powerful software platform that delivers greater design flexibility, customization capability and “best in class” functionality. Lava Design 7 offers a full range of indications and exciting new features including parallel scan and design, rescan, opposing arch and full arch scanning. Additionally, an integrated file transferring system makes data transfer within the Lava™ Network simple.

Someday chairside digital impressioning may be standard operating procedure and cases will go directly from the operatory to a lab’s computer, but until then, lab scanners will be the main gateway to digital workflows.

Applying New Technologies: ZENOTEC T1 Compatible with Dental Wings and all open model/die, impression or intraoral scanner technologies with STL output, the ZENOTEC T1 benchtop milling unit provides simultaneous 5-axis milling of crown and bridge substructures, implant abutments, and wax/resin patterns as well as quarter- and full-arch models. Its integrated storage magazine stacks up to 28 ZENOTEC discs from which 35 to 40 restorations can be milled from each based on the indication, plus one optional tool disc.