ENG
Big start to the year! Shining 3D launched the “All-digital Lab fully digital production line” solution, and the digital immersion period for dental labs has arrived.
Since around 2010, Dental labs have embarked on the road of digital development, and digital transformation has become a frequently used term of dental industry customers. The journey into adopting digital workflows in the lab has been slow but steady, as the industry took some time to adjust and realize that digitization could close the gap in major areas of production. Since 2019, the digital transformation of dental labs has entered an “immersion period”. This is evident in exponential growth of intraoral scanners in dental clinics, 3D printing technology, and the explosion of CAD/CAM in the dental field as a whole. More dental lab peers are no longer satisfied with partial digitization but hope to organically integrate digital technology at the core of their business to achieve continuous transformation.
However, this has not always been an easy journey for most labs as it requires an upgrade to technology, management, and business practices as well as integrating technology into existing workflows. Overtime, this transformation has been proven to pay off, and the industry has come to realize the importance of digital dental technology. So how do you transform dental labs at a low cost, and where should the transformation start?
With intra oral scanning equipment and digital impression technology as the breakthrough point, and the data cloud platform along with new CAD\CAM workflows as the platform carrier, Shining 3D’s “All-digital Lab fully digital production line” solution and service system came into existence. Committed to helping dental labs open a new round of digital upgrades and helping dental labs achieve digital success.
Shining 3D, which has been deeply involved in the field of dentistry for more than ten years, proposed the “All-digital Lab fully digital production line” based on its profound technical accumulation and experience. This solution provides a digital workflow from start to finish by offering a digital impression, data transmission, verification, CAD design, model printing, digital production, and express delivery for other processes. The fully digital production line avoids the potential infection risk to dentists, assistants, and lab technicians, which can be carried by traditional impression techniques. In addition, real time order tracking removes the communication barrier between the dentist and lab, facilitating smooth and on time case delivery. This winning strategy will open all the doors for a lab looking to take a key step in digital transformation.
Digital Dental Immersion Period
The role of this period breaks the analogue circle and strengthens the link between dentists and patients.
Compared with the early dental digitalization, the dental digitalization during the immersion period has changed the role of the dental labs, brought more influence chairside, and even allowed the patient to become more involved in the process. This has created a strong link between the technician and the dentist and patient, allowing the value and benefits of digital technology to expand and impact the dental clinics and consumers.
The traditional laboratory workflow involves many tedious and labor-intensive steps such as the complicated process of gypsum mold casting, die trimming, and the consumption of materials and labor. The traditional system introduces many possibilities for human error, decreasing the accuracy of the restoration especially in implant cases. Now, with an all-digital workflow, the process is standardized and simplified with an intraoral digital impression, model design, and 3D printing production and milling. The digital impression pushes the digital diagnosis and treatment of prosthodontics to a higher level and is the first step taken by the technicians in their transformation.
Secondly, the way of the intraoral digital impression has changed the traditional mode of oral diagnosis and treatment.
– Data is more accurate. There is no need to cast models back and forth. The error of the digital impression only comes from the scanning error, and the controllability of the error source is greatly improved.
– Scanning is more intuitive. Intraoral digital impressions can obtain color information of oral soft and hard tissues and provide true color scanning.
– More flexible diagnosis and treatment. During intraoral scanning, dentists can observe the dental preparation situation in real time, which is convenient for timely adjustment and flexibility, reducing remakes and case delays.
– Improved patient satisfaction. Chairside digital restorations can be achieved through intraoral digital scanning, reducing patient waiting time and allowing them to become more involved in the process.
– Improved patient comfort. Avoids nausea caused by trays and impression materials during traditional impression taking, especially for patients with sensitive gag reflexes.
More importantly, the digital immersion period in dentistry reshaped the business and operation model of dental labs
– Simplified logistics flow. The patient’s intraoral data is transmitted directly to the dental lab through the cloud platform, and the plaster model is removed, which does not need to be sent back and forth.
– Break through the information barrier. The digital impression along with a digital prescription creates a connected closed loop for production management and is a new model for the rapid growth of the dental lab business.
– Facilitate management upgrades. Compared with the plaster model, the intraoral data is easier to save and query. Once a problem occurs, the source can be traced according to the data, thereby improving the dental lab’s management efficiency.
– Change the operating model. The dental labs move from behind the scenes to the front, closer to the patient, and can respond to patient needs more efficiently. This transition lays the foundation for the development of new markets and facilitates the growth and optimization of the enterprise’s business.
– Improve competitive advantage. Taking digital impressions as the entrance will amplify the advantages of dental labs in the industry and enhance the competitiveness of enterprises.
All-Digital Lab Lightweight Solution
Helping dental labs transform with low-cost
Manufacturing enterprises often have pain points such as complex production processes, low material flow efficiency, and difficult to trace quality problems. In order to solve these problems in the process of digital transformation, Shining 3D’s “All-digital Lab full digital impression production line” solution was developed. Based on Shining’s digital dental product matrix, a full service is provided to dental labs through a complete digital process from digital impression to dental restoration design.
Powerful digital impression tool
– Aoralscan 2 and Aoralscan 3 boast powerful and efficient digital impression tools and software. In the future, Shining 3D will continue to advance our scanners and software to empower chairside service teams.)
– Training will be available on topics ranging from equipment operation to data standard establishment to communication skills and solutions for Dentists and technicians. By offering this personnel training, the digital transformation of the chairside service team will be seamless and easy.
– Increased communication pathways and coordination between the lab and Dentist for large and complex cases will ensure a smooth delivery and lower remakes.)
■ Whole-process digital model management system.
– Shining 3D dental cloud platform provides dental labs with the transmission, storage and screening of digital impression data, and helps customer service departments manage data.
– Assist dental labs with transforming and upgrading their traditional model department into a new digital model department and 3D printing smart space.)
■ Digital design technical solutions
– Electronic orders, no paper orders or physical impressions are required, the whole process of digital information transmission is efficient and fast.
– Complete technical solution to help dental labs realize the digital production line transformation.
■ Cloud platform to strengthen the link between the technician with the Dentist and patient.
– Dentist-technician communication, through the cloud platform can break the limitation of time and space, allowing real-time zero-barrier communication.
– Live order tracking, and the current order status can be viewed in real time through the Shining cloud platform. In the future, patients can also access through the APP to track the whole process of production and delivery of their own case.
It is worth mentioning that, different from the implementation of traditional solutions, Shining 3D’s “All-digital Lab fully digital production line” has the advantages of lightweight deployment, flexible configuration, low investment and high return, and relies on a strong regional service system and team. The platform can be quickly launched within 2-4 weeks, and customized services and continuous upgrades can be carried out according to the existing digital products of the lab, which effectively lowers the threshold for small and medium-sized dental labs to use digital services and helps enterprises quickly achieve digital development.
Looking back on the history of the dental lab industry, each leap forward is closely related to the introduction of new materials and the use of new processes, and the dental industry has also made great strides with these developments. With the continuous investment of equipment and technology, management based on digitalization has reached a very critical fork in the road, and it has become a “required move” that must be done. Other manufacturing industries such as the Internet, Industry 4.0, and data transformation have been quick to adopt digital transformation, and the dental industry is next in line to explore its essence, which is inseparable from the improvement of enterprise operating efficiency. We have reason to believe that in the process of this rapid popularization of oral scanning, there will be more companies embracing this digital revolution, and in 2022, together with Shining 3D, they will break through any obstacles in the way of digitization.