3M to donate Lava C.O.S. systems to dental schools

Dental schools around the country could soon be training students on 3M ESPE's Lava™ Chairside Oral Scanner C.O.S. systems courtesy of 3M Community Giving, the company's charitable arm. 

The donations are being offered to schools meeting criteria including number of students, proximity to 3M facilities and a demonstrated ability to integrate digital dentistry into the curriculum. Along with the high-tech intraoral scanning systems, 3M ESPE will be providing support for the qualifying schools, in order to get them off and running with the technology as a part of their curricula. 

This program seems like a move that will benefit the schools, the dental students training on the systems, but also 3M. Instructors will have an exciting tool to introduce students to the efficiencies and possibilities of digital dental technologies, while students who have access to this technology during their education will benefit from being able to see and work with the detailed digital impression scans that magnify intraoral details and can enhance communication when working collaboratively on a case.

Of course, by making the company's digital impression system available to the dentists of tomorrow, 3M gains the advantage of a new wave of clinicians who are intimately familiar with the company's technology and ready to put it to use in the practices they join, start or purchase. The company has set it self up to be a leader in the industry's digital transition and this altruistic move helps to further that goal.

“Connecting universities with the desire to offer cutting edge technologies with the worldwide leader of dental innovations was a natural fit given our organizational goal of preparing students for future opportunities and 3M ESPE’s commitment to transform the dental industry. The Lava C.O.S. system will provide the basis for assisting universities to enter the digital age of dentistry,” said Ian Hardgrove, senior vice president of marketing and sales and president ofthe 3M Corporate Giving Committee, in a press release.

Qualifying schools should certainly look to take advantage of this opportunity to give their students greater access to technology. Digital impressions have been shown to reduce remakes, and can be great tools for improved communication between dentists and dental technicians. Students who learn this technology at the start of their careers are likely to make it a part of their future practice, and more importantly than the benefit this might bring to 3M, this would be beneficial to the patients these future doctors will be treating.