Till here, everywhere on social media I see The 10 Year Challenge. It seems that social media has something new for everyone to follow on a daily basis. In this case I had to think about it for only a few minutes to realize that I don’t have to look back 10 years. 9-10 months is enough for me to sit down and say WOW, digital dentistry is becoming a huge part of my work life. Over the last year I see several of my clients take the plunge and invest in an intraoral scanner. As a lab owner you can either invest in CAD/CAM systems to support these clients and jump in the boat or watch the boat sail into the sunset from shore. Big name companies in the dental industry are offering chairside milling systems. “Why send to the lab when you can do it?” say the sales reps.
I was terrified to be honest.
That was until I realized that I can still provide what we do best if I offer my clients a service they would rather not do in house but that still uses new technologies.
We accept scans from most major intraoral scanners
Though we specialize in producing highly aesthetic handcrafted crowns, we have nearly a decade of experience under our belt working with various CAD/CAM software. One thing that I’ve noticed over the past 8 years is that I can count on one hand how many digital files for anterior cases that I’ve received.
Why is that?
I think it comes down to the clinician making a decision when the patient is in the chair and asking themselves the following questions:
Is it an anterior crown should be properly contoured and colour matched?
What do the adjacent teeth look like? Should I have the lab mask out the dark stump?
Is my patient a bruxir and needs a zirconia crown?
Is it easier to scan a scan body than taking an impression with an impression coping?
For me it was pretty clear right away that I don’t get every crown from every client that has a chairside set up, and that’s ok. But I think it’s my job to push y’all to the limit and keep using the scanners for anterior crowns, bridges and implants!
Whatever the reason may be; expiring insurance, snowbirds leaving for the South or just a tight work schedule, we want to accommodate you and your patient’s needs.
There is no need for this common scenario:
- Appointment #1: You take alginate impressions to have study models made, sent to the lab, waxed up by hand and sent back
- Appointment #2: your patient verifies the diagnostic wax up.
- Appointment #3: you prep the anterior teeth and temporize with lifeless looking temps for two weeks
- Appointment #4: to receive the final restoration.
We know that you value your time
What if we could fast-track all of this into two appointments?
Here is what we can do for you (stick with me folks!):
If we know that you have an aesthetic case coming and can pre-schedule it, we will sit awaiting your portraits and retracted close ups to set up a virtual 2D smile design.
While you go over the different material options with the patient we send the pictures back to be reviewed.
When the patient likes what she sees and what can be done you then can scan upper, lower and a bite.
We start designing the case on the intraoral scans after we receive your work order and send you the design to verify within a few days.
Once the patient has made a decision to go ahead you then can prep the teeth as usual.
You send the scans with the scanner of your choice, we marry the pre-op design to your preps and we are off to the races.
We can either mill the crowns out of lithium disilicate or zirconia depending on what material has been chosen.
That also determines if we have to sinter the zirconia overnight or mill in glass ceramic such as Emax that can be finished in the same day.
Multiple options are available for both materials: Quick fire and polish, or stain and glaze for customization or the whole nine yards with cut backs of the crown and multilayered porcelain for ultimate aesthetics (note that additional time would be required).
Depending on units required, this is possible within one day, as we can deliver crowns to you to cement.
If you are intrigued by this kind of workflow, give us a call and we can go over questions you may have.
