How Core3dcentres is equipping labs for the future

Core3dcentres has been busy with its education series, Core3daCADemy, educating lab professionals all over the country about the ways going digital can help their labs. We recently spoke with Tim McKimson, global engine?ering director and general manager at Core3dcentres USA, to learn how Core3daCADemy is changing the game:

Core3dcentres^® has been offering services and education in the U.S. for quite some time now. What was it about the U.S. lab market that made you want to help out?

Core3dcentres was actually formed by a group of dental lab companies with an extensive history in the industry. So we realized early on that many laboratories may not have the money, or desire, to invest to bring the latest equipment in-house to manufacture the wide variety of CAD/CAM restorations available today. Instead, we made the investment in high end “best-in-class” machinery and people to provide these products to the individual laboratory, allowing them to offer a full line in turn to their practitioner clients. This allows our customers to play in the CAD/CAM sandbox without them having to make the investment.   

What was it that led Core3dcentres to launch Core3daCADemy™?

Since we have been in the forefront of the digital dental movement, we were getting a lot of calls into our tech center about how to create efficient designs for today’s technologies and how to handle certain data they were receiving from their dentist clients. Some of these calls were not even from our own customers but referred to us from other companies. As it seemed that we were becoming the “go-to” people in the digital laboratory arena, we thought it would be appropriate to develop classes to address some of these needs on a broader scale and scope. Hence, Core3daCADemy was born.

What do you feel has been the most successful aspect of the aCADemy™?

Up to this point, it has been the aCADemy classes offered in Las Vegas and in Calgary. This is a three-part structured set of courses running from aCADemy™ 1 to aCADemy™ 3 that will take students from the basics to implant design to a full-arch smile design. It seems like everyone, no matter how long they have been involved in dental design, gets some “ah-ha moment” where they find a new technique that they didn’t know existed in the software. The popularity of this series, our on-going monthly webinar series and our “Traveling Core3daCADemy,” offering customized education at individual labs themselves, are all growing rapidly as the word spreads. In fact, we have just launched the aCADemy in Toronto, Ontario, as well so the demand for quality hands-on laboratory education is certainly there.

Conversely, where have you felt challenged in the education component and adjusted your focus?

Having the structured classes mentioned above is great. One of our challenges was to get out the word when new products and/or equipment enter the market. So we decided to set up the webinar series I just mentioned that informs the listener about these new products, technologies and techniques. These webinars are hosted by Core3dcentres, but many times the presenter will be an industry leader. We host these on the third Wednesday of every month. The webinars are free, interactive and you can listen from the comfort of your home or office or wherever.

How has Core3dcentres refined its focus in terms of services?

Besides understanding all the intricacies of milling, we need to be involved in the complete digital workflow. So, as a company with a full digital solution, we have to have a smooth workflow covering all the possible intraoral scanners to all lab design software to all materials to milling or printing. We are constantly educating our personnel and adjusting our product line to keep abreast of the latest updates in material, technology and technique. This is another area that we cover so the individual lab doesn’t have to. Even for us as specialists in the field, the pace of change can sometimes seem overwhelming.  We put a tremendous focus and effort on forming partnerships with the leading manufacturers of equipment, materials and software. This allows us early access to products or releases coming out.

What have you seen in the industry in the last few years that have changed what Core3dcentres is offering?

Custom Ti abutments and hybrid abutments on printed models. Now that more and more doctors are getting intraoral scanners, the need for an impression is going away. So, we have seen a big growth in taking an intraoral scan, creating a printed model with an analog and sending that with the custom abutment to the lab for finishing work. This is a very efficient method.

Where do you see the dental lab industry going in 2015-2016?

Materials seem to be making a move early this year; a whole bunch of companies were announcing in Chicago and at IDS in Cologne. These are both in the milled and printed sector. Core3dcentres, as I mentioned earlier, usually gets in early on this material development workflow so as these products are released we have already validated the process.

For more information, call 888-750-9204 or visit core3dcentres.com.