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LAB TRIBUNE The World’s Dental Lab Newspaper · U.S. Edition By John Aitchison, CDT, Minot Dental Laboratory and Bob Steingart, SensAble Dental Products To date, dental CAD/CAM sys- tems have primarily focused on cre- ating only one specific type of fixed restoration — zirconia copings. As the digital evolution in the dental industry continues, innova- tive software combined with tightly integrated hardware, as well as new materials and fabrication tech- niques, are making it possible for dental labs to purchase one system and use it to create multiple types of restorations. For example, newer systems allow the digital design of remov- able restorations — metal and flex- ible partials — along with full con- tour crowns and bridges. With Baby Boomers and the cur- rent economic conditions fueling demand for removable prosthet- ics, along with the ability to design removables digitally instead of painstakingly by hand, many labs that may have outsourced partials in recent years now view investing in CAD/CAM to produce them in- house as a viable way to grow their businesses. Our lab has been using the SensAble Dental Lab system since late 2008. We have completed almost 14,000 restorations with it — including both partials and crown and bridge work — and the time savings is tremendous. We can digitally design and wax a three-unit bridge in less than 10 minutes, compared to hand wax- ing, which used to take us 90 min- utes. We can complete a press over metal (PoM) crown in less than four minutes. We start with a tooth from one of the fully integrated digital tooth libraries; design the crown; and then simply press a button to create the anatomical coping. One techni- cian digitally designed a porcelain fused metal (PFM) coping in liter- ally 45 seconds. We are also seeing incredible efficiencies when digi- tally designing partials. The system gives us the creative freedom to tackle even the most challenging cases. We don’t have to make any special changes to Designing multiple restoration types using one dental CAD/CAM system June 2010 www.dental-tribune.com Vol. 1, no. 1 g LT page 3D Sirona’s CAD/CAM seminar draws crowd Sirona Dental Systems, a com- pany that pioneered digital dentistry 25 years ago and a leading producer of dental CAD/CAM systems, held a two-day inLab Discovery Seminar, which focused on the benefits of dig- ital dentistry at the Scottsdale Center for Dentistry on April 30 and May 1. With a jam-packed auditorium that included several hands-on dem- onstration stations, Sirona’s inLab Discovery Seminar turned out to be the largest dental laboratory CAD/ CAM event in history, with more than 150 industry professionals in attendance. Sirona presented the CAD/CAM event complete with a handful of distinguished lecturers in the den- tal and laboratory industry speak- ing on the hottest industry topics, which included information on all aspects of CAD/CAM and digital dentistry. Held amidst the backdrop of the prestigious Scottsdale Center for Dentistry, all inLab Discovery Semi- nar attendees were provided com- plimentary tuition, and C.E. credits were also available for attending the educational sessions. “We were extremely excited to present this seminar, and we were very satisfied with the number of attendees,” said Sirona Dental Sys- tems President Michael Augins. “The inLab Discovery Seminar was an educational experience in which each and every component of CAD/ CAM was thoroughly explored by seasoned users who have employed CAD/CAM technology as the work- horse of their success. It provided dental professionals with the infor- mation they require to make an informed decision about incorporat- ing digital dentistry into their own laboratories. I believe participants walked away with a better under- standing of how Sirona’s CAD/CAM solutions can actually work for them.” Topics of discussion during the inLab Discovery Seminar included success stories, materials efficacy, how any size laboratory can increase productivity with CAD/CAM and much more. Two of our most recent cases illustrate the system’s flexibility and the time-savings we are able to achieve — time that frees us to do other cases — as well as the added our system to accommodate par- tials, compared to crown and bridge work. We have found that the system’s presets and built-in features deliv- er consistent results, regardless of which restoration type we create or which of our technicians designs it. Fig. 1a g LT page 2D Fig. 1b (Photos/Provided by SensAble Dental Products) industry event