This system offers a total digital manufacturing process to simplify the creation of dentures.
Ivoclar Vivadent
When Anthony K. Senegal Sr, cofounder, president, and operations director of Partners Elite Dental Laboratory Services (PEDLS), decided he needed to streamline his lab’s workflow for monolithic removable dentures, he wasn’t sure where to turn. He wanted a system that simplified design while reliably producing quality dentures with little need for extra manual work. After searching, he found his solution through Ivoclar Vivadent.
The Ivotion Denture System offers a complete digital manufacturing process for the fabrication of removable monolithic dentures. The digital system comprises an integrated workflow of digital laboratory fabrication methods, simplifying the creation of dentures and reducing opportunities for human mistakes.
“It’s an extreme benefit when you are talking about reducing mistakes,” Senegal says. “There’s less human error that can take place when you’re dealing with the milling of Ivotion.”
The Ivotion Denture System
This denture system is a digital manufacturing process that simplifies the creation of dentures. Combining 3Shape’s scanning capabilities, materials from Ivoclar, and manufacturing strategies from PrograMill, this workflow seamlessly and efficiently creates dentures.
Ivoclar Vivadent
800-533-6825 | ivoclarvivadent.com
The Ivotion Denture System workflow uses materials from Ivoclar, software and scanning technologies from 3Shape, and milling machines and manufacturing strategies from PrograMill. These combine into a seamless workflow. Senegal integrated Ivotion into his workflow at PEDLS in November 2020 and was impressed with the accuracy and quality of the system. He has found that the fast manufacturing time, quality materials, and predictable results have been a great benefit to his lab.
Richard Wilson, DDS, cofounder and chief clinical consultant and director at Partners Elite Dental Laboratory Services, LLC, stands with a patient who has received Ivotion's upper denture esthetics.
“If you ever want to make a technician go from a smile to a frown, just say the word remake,” Senegal says, laughing. “That’ll make them frown really quickly. But we haven’t had a single remake since we started using Ivotion. You’re guaranteed you’ll get a quality denture, with few to no mistakes.”
With the slogan “1 disc, 1 milling process, 1 denture,” Ivotion has an uninterrupted milling process that machines monolithic complete or individual complete dentures, immediate complete dentures, and overdentures on 2 attachments from 1 disc, reducing the need for manual work. Although he has had a few patients with larger arches who required the 2-step method, for most patients, 1 puck fits the bill.
He has found that Ivotion’s Shell Geometry technology has been beneficial for design quality and esthetics, streamlining the process more. Located within the Ivotion disc, the Shell Geometry is a 3D tooth and dental-arch structure designed for the fabrication of mandibular and maxillary dentures and allows technicians to mill accurate complete dentures—which rarely require more than polishing after production—in 1 operation.
“You design it, then you send it to manufacturing, and the machine does the work for you,” Senegal says. “So you’re guaranteed to get a quality denture with no mistakes. And that’s a huge benefit, to the lab, the clinician, and patient satisfaction.”
Although Senegal says the initial investment in Ivotion can be high, he has found his investment has paid off. Between the high-quality polymethyl methacrylate tooth and denture base materials and reduced manual steps due to milling accuracy, he has cut down on case time and been able to increase his case load.
“If you get the fit right, there are fewer patient visits after you deliver that denture,” Senegal says. “The likelihood of a patient coming back is minimal. That’s huge when you think about the time you spend on a particular case, when you could be focused on another one. You can save time to do other things and work on other accounts—and still be able to deliver a quality denture.”
Senegal has deemed the investment so worthwhile that he and his business partner, Richard “Al” Wilson, DDS, cofounder and chief clinical consultant and director at PEDLS, are in construction to build a full-service digital commercial lab and are planning to add 3 more PrograMill units, or, as they call them, Ivotion machines.
“When we first looked into this milling system, I quickly said, ‘That’s it, we’re all in, we need to offer this accuracy of milling to our patients,’” Senegal says. “That’s how much we believe in this system and how much benefit we feel that we can get.”
