Proud of the customer feedback for Digital Dentures
Serving dental laboratories has long been part of Dentsply Sirona’s business. In 2018, several parts of the Company came together to formalize what is now known as DS Lab. Today, the team offers an incredible array of products and solutions that improve workflows for lab technicians and have changed the way dental offices communicate and work with their chosen laboratories
The Lab business engages with dental technicians all around the world, working in labs of all sizes. In close cooperation with the Country Commercial Organizations (CCOs), DS Lab offers everything from equipment, to software, to materials, to the training necessary for the success of labs and dental technicians to serve its dentist customers.
The Lab team consists of roughly 1,500 employees. They have enjoyed a number of recent successes including the development of digital workflows for milling and printing materials for full dentures. To learn more about relevant market trends, and DS Lab’s most recent exciting innovation in digital dentures, Spotlight asked the Vice President of Dentsply Sirona Lab, Julie Mroziak, two questions:
What are the most important trends and factors influencing dental lab customers that employees should be aware of?
Julie Mroziak: The digital transformation of both dental labs and clinical practices is quite dynamic and has made it even more important for the Lab business and employees to understand the trends that are happening in order for us to focus on the right product developments and innovations to meet their needs. Laboratories have been digital for many years in the crown and bridge segment. With our inLab system of design software, desktop scanner and milling equipment, plus a broad range of digital materials, like Cercon zirconia and Celtra Duo high strength glass, we have a strong position to establish digital workflows in other segments of prosthetics.
In front of this digital transformation, we have to know and understand the key lab workflows to be also an innovative partner for their process in changing from analog to digital fabrication of digital full dentures. The trends and basic situations in the countries are different, but there are some commonalities. Due to trending lab consolidation, the size of labs is changing. Some labs are becoming larger and other smaller labs are focused on niche appliances and procedures. With the number of labs closing their doors, there are fewer dental technicians in most markets. It is more and more difficult for the labs to hire qualified technicians for their denture business. And they are under economic pressure to maintain the delivery of high quality denture restorations and dentures at an affordable price.
We need to understand the differences from market-to-market with our Country Commercial Organizations to make sure that we have the right technologies, materials, services and tools for this market transition. We also have to make sure that we support labs in this digital transformation with their dentists. We will support with education and training to make them experts in this segment and be a strong partner for them. Our new inLab Software 20.0 and Connect Case Portal will help in this manner.
What technologies and innovations should employees across the Company be most aware of?
JM: There are so many great, dynamic new product innovations from the Lab business. We recently launched our inLab SW 20.0 with a complete Digital Denture design workflow for full-over-full cases. Its full-denture indication also provides for seamless, validated, and open workflows. We always recommend the seamless workflow in which Dentsply Sirona technologies and corresponding materials are used from the inEos X5 scanner and inLab Software, to the inLab MC X5 milling unit. In terms of materials, we offer the Lucitone 199 Denture Base Disc for milling the prosthesis base and the IPN 3D Digital Denture Teeth, which were specially developed for the digital workflow. However, those who wish can also work in validated mode and use products from our validated partners. And since inLab is still an open system, it is also possible to use open components from other manufacturers. We provide a file export in STL format for the transfer of data.
Lucitone Digital Print 3D Denture Resin is the first FDA-cleared, high impact, printable denture base that has come to market. The printing workflow includes five core material system products: Lucitone Digital Print 3D Denture Resin, IPN 3D Digital Denture Teeth, Lucitone Digital Try-In 3D Trial Placement Resin, Lucitone Digital Fuse 3-Step 3D Denture Bonding system, and inLab Speedcure Processing Unit. We partner with a company called Carbon out of San Francisco, California who are leaders in printing technology. The materials and Carbon M-series printer are designed, tested and validated to work together. The system is currently available in the US and we are working to help expand into other countries where Carbon M-series printers are available.
Digital Dentures, with our processes and technologies, has really awakened Key Opinion Leaders who feel rejuvenated to work with DS Lab. It’s been amazing to see how excited they are to partner with us and drive the technology forward. We recently welcomed 30 experts to our Hanau facility for an education event. Please have a look at the amazing video to get a sense of their enthusiasm.
The importance of digital dentures to labs was apparent at the 2020 Chicago Midwinter Meeting´s Lab Day, which took place in February. Our Digital Denture solutions were the talking point at the fair. This success was possible thanks to our people coming together and collaborating to create a customer-focused product. Three teams brought their expertise together: from Bensheim, Germany focusing on inLab equipment, software, scanners, sintering systems; the group in Hanau, Germany focused on veneering ceramics and zirconia technology; and the colleagues from the York, Pennsylvania, USA location focused on all 3D print and milled denture-related materials to work together across time zones and geography. We want to assume the leading role in the field of digital dentures. As a next step in collaboration, we are looking at how to integrate our partners from the Implant team into our workflows and training in the future.
Thank you very much for speaking with Spotlight.