Tais Clausen

	Throughout the course of several articles last year, we explored the future of digital dentistry and how it could help your lab counter business threats, grow and help you do highly esthetic work in a more cost-effective and efficient way. But what comes after digitization?

Mass-digitization of the dental lab industry

 is already underway, and, in my previous articles, I argued labs need to get on the digital bandwagon as soon as possible to stay competitive. But what happens after all labs are digitized-and being digital is no longer the deciding differentiator that keeps a lab’s business ahead of its competitors?

First, I foresee a future in which non-digital labs will have closed down, except for those few that manage to hang on to some of their customers due to long-term relationships. Some non-digital labs may survive by positioning themselves in niche areas. But the main industry drivers will be large, mid-sized and even smaller digital labs with efficient 


	With all contenders in the ring being digital, many labs will have similar offerings, and labs, at least those with top-of-the-market CAD/CAM systems, will basically be working with comparative possibilities in terms of production speed, available materials, quality and the range of indications they can offer. Inevitably, the dental lab market will lean more and more towards becoming a buyer’s market where dentists can easily shop around and switch providers without suffering major consequences. Therefore, digital labs will need to develop new differentiators-business models that are strong enough to maintain customer loyalty, win new clients and take the lead in their local markets.


	Many labs today are looked upon as production centers, delivering orders of dental restorations to their client base of dentists. Embracing CAD/CAM surely adds production speed, improved quality and more indications. But in a massively digital market, these improvements, although significant, will not by themselves change the perception of the lab’s role as yet another efficient production center among many others. Labs need to move from being production-only labs to become service-provider labs-while taking advantage of their digital technologies to get there. To put it shortly, labs that want to stand out need to shift focus, redefine their function for dentists and create a new place for themselves in the value chain.

Related reading: How to transition your lab from traditional to all-digital


	Labs will require tools that make possible new service opportunities as supplements to restoration production. The best CAD/CAM providers will target their innovation and solutions to provide such tools to labs. Already today, advancements in technology and digital precision are bringing highly reliable tools to the market, and I expect that labs will take advantage of these to intensify the application of treatment planning in a larger number of cases. Additionally, 3D technology and Internet communication tools make it easy to provide clinics with pre-treatment visualizations so dentists can evaluate restoration designs and discuss cases with the patient.


	A typical dental lab is a warehouse of knowledge. The combination of technician skills, wide-ranging case experience, materials expertise and CAD/CAM technology know-how represents a business asset that is both unique and valuable. Digital labs can easily position themselves as dental specialists and offer formal consultancy services-mainly to dentists but also to other labs, milling centers and practically anyone involved in the industry. Such activity is not only a potential revenue-bringing business model, but it also strengthens relationships with dentists and eventually brings in more work.

Enhancing the “service provider” image


	As a dental lab’s service portfolio grows increasingly versatile, it becomes more and more important to promote its offerings and uniqueness in the market. As with any business, good marketing will help labs establish a strong image, reach more customers and beat competition. There are plenty of marketing channels available to labs-channels that do not require the clout of a whole marketing department. An active and communicative website, direct mail campaigns, social media and digital newsletters are just a few examples.


	Digitization of the lab industry opens a realm of opportunity as well as new business challenges. More than ever, it will become imperative to strengthen customer relationships by shifting focus and business models from production to services for dentists. As a first step, those labs which have not yet embraced CAD/CAM should do so soon-because a lab’s CAD/CAM maturity will become a key competitive advantage when all the other labs discover they had better go digital as well.

Labs that have already fully integrated CAD/CAM into their workflows and business models, while building up technology expertise, will simply have a head-start in relation to many of the competition-winning factors, and a bright outlook to their future.

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 Throughout the course of several articles last year, we explored the future of digital dentistry and how it could help your lab counter business threats, grow and help you do highly esthetic work in a more cost-effective and efficient way. But what comes after digitization?

Meeting the challenges of digitization

	Dentistry is advancing into the digital era faster than most had anticipated. Not many people can doubt that these digital trends will only accelerate. We believe the age of the Full Digital Lab is almost upon us. Here are nine things we see:

New scanners make plaster models extinct 


	Recent scanning technology advancements, especially in terms of speed and accuracy, have made the use of intraoral scanners increasingly attractive for dentists, and we expect that application of digital impression-taking in clinics will truly boom. Labs that are directly connected to dental clinics that have such solutions will be able to receive digital impressions immediately, and start designing right away without casting a model. Naturally, the use of physical impressions will continue in some clinics or in specific situations that merit it. However, even with such cases, rather than using the impression to cast a model, labs will employ sophisticated impression scanners that can accurately scan the physical impression directly.

Read part 1 in this series: How to increase your business by going digital


	Digital model-making is surging forward rapidly as better digital impression systems, new CAD software and improved manufacturing technologies provide model-making solutions at lower costs with higher accuracy and increased efficiency. More and more models will be created directly from digital impressions using CAD model design software and CAM model-making machines.


	More and more labs will produce crowns and simple cases without models because accurate virtual articulators in the CAD software let them validate and adjust dynamic articulation using the intraoral scan or impression scan as input. Currently, most model-free crown production focuses on single crowns. However, in some cases, model-free workflows have already spread to more complex restorations such as bridges, and more advanced restoration types.

Must read: 5 ways to go digital the RIGHT way


	Several years ago, market observers started speaking about full digital crowns; many listeners were skeptical. Today, we can already see this concept has advanced much faster than expected-largely driven by new materials such as full zircronia and IPS e.max. We expect this trend will only widen as new monolithic materials emerge. Full digital products will no longer be limited to copings. The combination of new materials and digital processing enhances accuracy, and enables labs to design full digital crowns for manufacturing in one or two materials without the time-consuming hand-veneering step.

Customized abutments will replace stock abutments


	Generally, we will see an increased market penetration of implant cases, largely due to lower costs of implants and restorative components, and an increased use of CAD/CAM technologies. Naturally, in terms of optimal treatment, customized abutments represent the best choice for almost all abutment cases. Customized abutments allow for better fits, perfect emergence profiles and generally represent a better clinical solution for the customer. As digital design processes improve, the price of customized abutments will eventually become comparable to, and perhaps even lower, than those of stock abutments--a development that is already emerging in some markets. Labs with CAD/CAM are today saving costs, space and logistics by removing the need to store stock abutments. For technicians already engaged in a CAD workflow, adding the steps for customizing the abutment to the specific case follows easily. Industry experts predict that stock abutments will eventually disappear from the market.

Read part 2 in this series: How to take your lab from traditional to all-digital

There will be a complete lab software package


	In the future, the leading CAD software systems will provide digital workflows covering the total spectrum of lab work. Software potentially can be developed to design any indication, and even combinations of indications, all in one go! Software is not the obstacle. The challenge is to manufacture all software-produced CAD designs in the right materials in terms of sufficient quality, lower costs and acceptable milling/printing times. We already see more and more manufacturing methods, cheaper manufacturing machines and new materials--such as monolithic ceramics and affordable 

 that directly support production of CAD designs. Driven by such developments and industry needs, the introductions of complete laboratory design software are not far away.


	Digital technologies help simplify case communication and provide tools for accomplishing complete case planning that is faster and more accurate than through traditional methods. Some CAD systems allow labs to design digital diagnostic wax-ups that are easily sent online to the dentist for 3D viewing in the clinic and, potentially, for discussion with the patient. Furthermore, CAD systems can bring together implant planning, prosthetics and production of surgical guides, enabling labs to provide full restorative packages before surgery.

Next page: Learn about a complete digital workflow ...


	More and more areas of dentistry are being touched by digital technologies, and we expect that soon all workflows will be integrated digitally, starting at the clinic, through the lab, on to manufacturing and ending with final treatment. Today, open intraoral scanning solutions kick off the 

 by enabling dentists to take digital impressions and send all digital case data directly to the lab using digital order forms. 

Administration systems for both practice management and lab management are being integrated

, thereby improving communication, logistics and workflows between all parties.


	The future technician will spend more time at the computer than at the workbench. But they will still need their technical and artistic skills. CAD software, no matter how intelligent, must be guided by a professional human touch when creating optimally esthetic and functional restorations. CAD software is a toolbox containing a wide range of methods that help improve quality and workflows. The efficiency and productivity this toolbox brings to labs will allow the digital dental technician more room to focus on providing services to dentists rather than restoration production alone.

Editor’s note: This article is the third in a four-part series. Make sure you check out upcoming issues of Dental Lab Products to find out even more about how your lab can go digital the RIGHT way. Don’t miss it!

Tais Clausen is the CTO and co-founder of 

. Since the founding of 3Shape, Clausen has been a 

key visionary driver in the company’s technology development

. His close, almost daily involvement with dental labs and clinics using 3Shape worldwide is the integral factor underlying his recognized expertise when it comes to the current and future needs of modern dental businesses.

 Dentistry is advancing into the digital era faster than most had anticipated. Not many people can doubt that these digital trends will only accelerate. We believe the age of the Full Digital Lab is almost upon us. Here are nine things we see:

9 digital lab trends you NEED to know [VIDEO]

	Traditional dental labs are today pressured from many sides-

 all pose serious threats to their future business efforts. Luckily, digital technologies are already providing direct answers to counter these upsetting realities. By going digital, labs can push right back.

Using in-clinic milling, dentists can set up their own manufacturing service to produce the final crowns directly in their clinic. This naturally means less business for the lab.

Another perspective: 5 reasons not to be afraid of chairside CAD/CAM

Dentists who invest in in-clinic milling are clearly motivated by the opportunity to significantly reduce their lab service costs. However, the ROI calculations they are presented with will often be based on prices from traditional labs that still use manual methods.

Labs equipped to use CAD/CAM can be more productive and thereby provide restoration services at lower prices than traditional labs while maintaining a high level of quality. Digital labs are closing the price gap between lab services and in-clinic milling, making in-clinic milling systems less attractive and changing the dentist’s investment priorities. 

Dentists who obtain cost-efficient services by using digital labs will potentially be able to realize more business profit from treating more patients rather than spending time on in-house manufacturing. Furthermore, the restoration quality, material choices and high esthetics that dedicated modern labs are able to provide will once again weigh heavily on their scales.

For many labs, lower price/quality laboratories pose the greatest threat to their existence. An increasing number of dentists and competing labs choose to send or outsource their restoration work to cheaper labs or regions. While this arrangement implies certain disadvantages in relation to turn-around time and quality, the savings are too significant to ignore.

Related: How to set your lab apart from the competition.

CAD/CAM can change these trends by enabling labs to compete with low-cost services. The high productivity per technician enabled through the digital process helps to bring local lab prices down to a competitive level.

For dentists, the slight price differences that may remain will become insignificant when weighed against local service benefits such as faster delivery, consistent quality enabled by CAD/CAM and closer supportive relationships with the lab.

Next page: Increased regulatory demands pressure labs

As requirements stiffen, strengthen and escalate to higher levels, it is becoming increasingly critical that dental laboratories become compliant with standards and regulations from bodies such as the as the FDA and ISO. Labs need to employ documented procedures and methods that will ensure the 

Acquiring a regulatory-compliant digital CAD/CAM system can be the most efficient way to fulfill a large part of the regulatory demands imposed on labs, because the workflows and output produced by these systems will already be FDA- and ISO-compliant. As one of their selection criteria, labs should consider the provider’s regulatory status before investing in a new system.

So Going Digital is the answer … but how?

Many lab owners are aware of their challenges and may even know that digital dentistry is the right move. However, many hesitate to go there because of the baffling number of systems and conflicting claims about which one is best to buy. Labs are absolutely right to be careful.

Related: 5 Ways to go digital the RIGHT way

Lab owners need to make the right choice among systems-a choice that will add business value and expand their long-term possibilities rather than limit them. Some labs continue to focus on short-term perspectives and fail to understand that their passage from traditional methods over to CAD/CAM is not one to be taken lightly, and perhaps one of the most important business decisions they have ever made.   

Editor’s note: This article is the first in a four-part series. Make sure you check out upcoming issues of Dental Lab Products to find out what labs need to know to handle the transition to digital, what the future of digital dentistry holds and much more. Don’t miss it!

Tais Clausen is the CTO and co-founder of 

. Since the founding of 3Shape, Clausen has been a 

 Traditional dental labs are today pressured from many sides-in-clinic milling, price competition and regulatory demands all pose serious threats to their future business efforts. Luckily, digital technologies are already providing direct answers to counter these upsetting realities. By going digital, labs can push right back.