Connecting the dots
| A new twist in the road for dental technology
Rather than send case work to a lab, dentists in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut Tri-State area now can call MobileTek Labs (www.mobileteklabs.com) and have a fully equipped van pull up to their practice’s doorstep. Run by brother-sister team David and Marisa Birnbaum, the company’s van features a CEREC 3 milling unit and all the supplies and materials necessary to allow trained operators to quickly fabricate crowns and inlays and onlays for one-visit restorations.
“From what we’ve found, owning and operating a CEREC system for the dentist is not quite as easy as it sounds,” David Birnbaum said. “We saw a disconnect between the product and the intended users, so we became an outsource CEREC machine on a same-visit basis. We’re in between a traditional lab and doctors having their own CEREC in their office. Our business model allows us to go from office to office and arrive in time to provide same-visit finished restorations.”
  Photos: MobileTek Labs |
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With the recent developments in improved milling blocks, software, and digital impression taking, some industry experts expect CAD/CAM to reach new heights in usage both chairside and in labs. Outsourcing within the lab industry has become a popular choice for some labs to get involved in CAD/CAM fabrication, and some companies are now involved in providing CAD/CAM services to dentists through a mobile lab that will drive up to the practice’s door with the equipment and materials needed to provide single-visit dentistry.
“We think that virtually all of the dentists will be doing some form of CAD/CAM restorative dentistry either by transmitting digital impressions and working with their lab, or by using CAD/CAM products like CEREC 3 to fabricate their restorations chairside,” said Augins, whose company offers the CEREC 3 system, which is designed to produce full-contour crowns in about 6 minutes, as well as the CEREC inLab, a popular laboratory CAD/CAM system. “Superior consistency, superior control, better quality restorations, faster, more economical, there’s a litany of advantages of CAD/CAM dentistry.
“Chairside CAD/CAM offers a tremendous advantage (for patients), including single-appointment dentistry, patients knowing exactly what they’re getting in their mouth, and it’s a great restoration in a single visit. It saves the patient time, it saves the patient pain, it gives the patient confidence in the restorationthat they’re getting. We think it’s a huge win.
“But for the dental practitioner there are just as many advantages. It’s more economical, they have more control over the restorations they place, and they also don’t have to book a second appointment, so there’s no need to clean up the operatory between visits. So there’s extraordinary benefits to both patients and dentists.”
At the Chicago Midwinter show in late February, Sirona Dental Systems launched CEREC Connect, a Web-based communication platform designed exclusively for CEREC and inLab dental CAD/CAM users. CEREC Connect allows direct digital communication between CEREC dentists and inLab laboratories via a Web-based portal, and enables CEREC dentists to eliminate physical impressions by electronically transmitting a digitally scanned impression to the inLab laboratory of their choice.
“CEREC Connect allows dentists or one of their auxiliaries to take a digital impression and then the dentist can either mill it with their CEREC milling chamber or send it out to their laboratory and the laboratory can fabricate it,” Augins said. “It works the same way that a Brontes or an iTero would, but it expands again what you can do with your CEREC machine. Because now you can either make it yourself or you can have the lab design it for you. Providing the most complete range of CAD/CAM options is one of the many advantages of the CEREC system.”
Maragos sums up these advances in CAD/CAM technology this way: “It’s about connecting the dots, meaning the technologies, and putting the puzzle together, meaning the digital business model. Every innovative development in technology we make in the industry, we move closer to connecting these dots together. For us (at Zahn Dental) we are delivering within the industry a totally integrated digital manufacturing solution; it’s a game-changing reality that continues to gain momentum.”
Stan Goff is a senior editor at Dental Products Report. He can be reached at 847-716-8139 or via e-mail at sgoff@advanstar.com.
About this DPR survey
The April 2008 DPR CAD/CAM Survey was e-mailed on Feb. 14, 2008 to 1,577 general practitioners in the United States. A total of 75 responses were received for an overall response rate of 5%.
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