Dental Technology Advances Bring Music to Our Ears

My favorite music manufacturer comes to the dental office!

When I hear that one of my favorite companies has grown and expanded in diverse directions, it is music to my ears. I’m talking about Roland, an incredible company renowned in the music world for keyboards, amplifiers, synthesizers, and other digital equipment I have always trusted. What does that have to do with dentistry? Roland’s music technology is the basis for new digital dental technologies.

For 25 years, Roland’s sister company, Roland DGA, has been an established icon in the dental lab niche. Now it brings its manufacturing excellence directly to the practitioner’s office with DGSHAPE open architecture clinical CAD/CAM milling solutions. DGSHAPE’s product is different from that of its musical sister company but in harmony with the same long-standing reputation for quality. I had the opportunity to speak to Lisa Aguirre, dental marketing manager for Roland DGA, who is driving the initiative behind this robust chairside milling solution.

Lou Shuman, DMD, CAGS: Why would a general practitioner want a mill?

Lisa Aguirre (LA): We’re living in a new world, with lots of changes in the way dentists treat patients. Dentists now want to keep more services in house and have more control over their treatment. One of the ways we can help clinicians offer patients more [for] less cost is doing same-day restorative dentistry. An open architecture chairside milling solution is a must-have for a practice in that regard.

LS: What are the benefits of DGSHAPE milling in real-world dentistry?

LA: Dentists hate that big lab bill they get each month. The DGSHAPE chairside milling solution decreases lab bills and overall expenses—no more making messy, expensive temporaries. You prep, scan, mill, and seat all on the same day, eliminating extra time, and expense. This is a great way to maximize production dollars per hour and reduce expenses.

LS: What does open architecture mean? What are the other choices?

LA: Milling solutions are either an open- or closed-platform system. DGSHAPE’s systems are all open architecture. That means dentists can choose the scanner of their choice, the software of their choice, and materials of [their] choice and even add on new technologies. The old turnkey closed systems are usually more expensive and do not allow dentists to make those important choices, and that compromises quality and esthetics in same-day restorative treatment.

LS: Do patients even notice?

LA: A lot of patients are intrigued by innovation. They pay more attention than you think to technology, whether or not they understand what it does. Technology in your office shows you offer the very best. If you think you are aggravated by temporaries popping out, so are your patients! And they will appreciate the convenience of having their crown done in 1 visit.

LS: How do I get the staff on board?

LA: As with any new technology, get your team involved and excited. Take 1 piece of the pie at a time. Most clinicians are already using an intraoral scanner to scan their preps. Now instead of sending that scan to the lab, they just send it to their own design software. Design software makes the process easy: a few clicks and it automatically designs everything. Pretty seamless. Minimal clicks may be needed for modification if the patient has unusual dentition, but for a typical posterior crown, automatic designs are typically spot-on.

Also, set realistic expectations. Don’t expect that the first week or the first month you will be seating same-day crowns. There’s always going to be a learning curve, but you will master it quickly. Also, [let] your team know they are an important part of the process.

LS: What do you see in the future for in-house chairside milling?

LA: The technology will continue to get easier and even more precise. For example, most chairside milling solutions can mill single crowns, veneers, inlays, onlays, and things of that sort. Our DWX-42W chairside mill also has the capability to mill [a bridge] up to 3 units. Also, you can purchase an add-on accessory, the AK-1 Abutment Kit, so you can mill custom titanium abutments. In the future, I would expect to see more accessories introduced to expand the applications that can be milled [with] our chairside milling solutions.

One of the challenges of using zirconia is the sintering time, which is postdevelopment time. One of the new things we’re excited about with our chairside milling solution is the ability to mill Perfit FS™ presintered zirconia blocks that do not require firing or [an] oven, which is a huge innovation and evolution for chairside wet milling.

Before we think of the future, we have to concentrate on today. For many clinicians, expenses are at an all-time high, and patients are more demanding of uncompromising quality of treatment. DGSHAPE solves all those issues and allows you to customize your chairside milling workflow with a company that has a longstanding reputation for quality of craftsmanship.