Highlights from Lab Day 2022
The next wave of dental lab technologies and materials was on display at the recent Lab Day 2022. Here are some of the highlights among the numerous new innovations featured at the event.
The technology powering the dental lab industry continues to race forward, and the annual Lab Day event in Chicago is the best place to see all the new innovations in one place. Back in a live format for 2022, the event included three days of education and two days of exhibit halls filled with the latest mills, printers, materials, and more. Here's a look at some of the most exciting innovations on display at the show.
With multiple exhibit halls to visit, Lab Day was a busy show to see, but for those who made it over to the west exhibit hall and visited the LuxCreo booth, the company was showing off its directly printed clear aligners. The new clear aligner material allows the production of aligners without the need to print models or to thermoform the plastic over those models. Instead, the aligners are directly printed and then cleaned and cured for a highly efficient production workflow.
GPAINNOVA was showcasing the DLyte Desktop Dental system, which is the first dry electropolishing system for dental labs. Small in size, this system is designed to provide better polishing results in fewer steps for labs working with cobalt-chrome partial denture frameworks. The company's dry polishing technology allows the polishing to focus on the outer surfaces of the parts being polished which helps avoid rounding edges and changing the geometry of the parts.
At the 3D Systems booth, the company was showing off the latest material in its NextDent printer materials line. CrownTec is designed for the production of permanent crowns, inlays, onlays, veneers, and denture teeth. The FDA-cleared resin material is available in 5 shades and provides the esthetics and durability required in a crown material.
At the Aidite booth the company was showing off its latest zirconia formulation. EZneer is a zirconia disc designed for fabrication of veneers and other thin restorations such as inlays. The material offers similar translucency to glass ceramics while providing 40% more strength. It is available in multiple shades and dimensions, as well as in multilayered formulations. The materials can be milled as thin as 0.2 mm for veneers.
In the Amann Girrbach showroom, the company was showcasing its latest CAD/CAM solutions with a new mill for dental labs and the company's first chairside solution. The new Ceramill Motion 3 shares a similar exterior design to the previous version, but the insides have all been upgraded to provide enhanced performance and easier operation. For the company's entry into the clinical realm, the new Ceramill DRS system provides a range of digital options for dental clinics. With its Ceramill Map DRS scanner and AG.Live case sharing solutions, practices can scan and send cases anywhere through the cloud. For practices that want to design in-house Ceramill Mind DRS software is designed to be simple to use, and the Ceramill Motion DRS mill features a compact design and production-grade components for incredibly accurate and detailed chairside milling.
In the Zahn Dental ballroom the company was showing off its own latest 3D printing offerings. The Trusana printed denture material from Myerson is one of those highlights, as it provides a highly durable and esthetic option for printing denture teeth. Also on display was the new ZIPRO Dental 3D Printer from AON Co. which is the first FDA-cleared printer capable of producing zirconia restorations.
