Professional Courtesy: In Pursuit of CAD/CAM Harmony Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD, Editorial Director, Dentaltown Magazine


 
In Pursuit of CAD/CAM Harmony

by Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD, Editorial Director, Dentaltown Magazine
This time of year everyone is consumed by the spirit of the holidays. This translates to wish lists and the purchase of new gadgets for home and office. Did you purchase something nice for your practice this year? If you are still waiting to put a CAD/CAM system on your list, I can say the time has come to start your research of this emerging technology. I know some will take umbrage (that means they will make a face) at the notion that I have referred to this as "emerging technology." The fact of the matter is this segment is on the verge of an explosion.

These are the current players in the U.S. market: CEREC by Sirona, E4D by D4D Systems, True Definition Scanner by 3M, iTero by Align Technology, IOS FastScan by Glidewell and TRIOS by 3Shape. While that is an impressive list by last year's standards, the number of players will easily double by the end of 2013. There is a tipping point of sorts with technology when enough players enter the market that buyers will pay attention. See tablet computers, eReaders or digital X-rays for perspective. In addition to the growing market, the other factors at play are pricing and a common format.

When it comes to purchasing technology, price is often an important consideration and the current cost of systems has been a road block. I would like to officially congratulate 3M with the launch of the True Definition Scanner, sporting a retail price that is just shy of $12,000. Wow! That got my attention. In addition to a great price, it has a camera with the best ergonomic design and smallest form factor to date. 3M is also the first to offer a hybrid solution - you can pair its camera with the E4D milling unit to create a complete chairside solution. It is this feature that brings me to the next critical factor - common format.

The category of digital impressions and CAD/CAM needs to adopt a single-file format that will allow impressions and designs to be shared with any machine. The TRIOS by 3Shape is another example of a capture device that can share images with many different milling units. It is only a matter of time before we have multiple stand-alone wet mills that can be used chairside in our offices with the camera of our choice. Imagine if you purchased a digital camera to take photos on your family vacation but you could only view the photos on one special computer and you could only print the images on one special printer; that would be ludicrous! Imagine if your computer could only print documents on one brand of printer and the text documents that you create could not be viewed by your colleague because his computer is a different brand - nonsense! Digital impressions should be as open and universal as an analog impression.

I believe dentists want to know that their digital impression can be read by any lab they choose and the lab owners want to know the design and milling equipment they purchase will be able to process any digital impression they receive. The same would hold true for a dentist who buys a digital impression solution today and chooses to add a milling unit in the future. Dentistry is often criticized for being behind the times and hesitant to change. This explosion of CAD/CAM technology can either magnify our shortcomings as a profession or serve as a beacon that our profession understands our expectations for technology. As always, you can reach me at tom@dentaltown.com.

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