Quality and Peace of Mind
Inside Dental Technology delivers updates on digital workflows, materials, lab techniques, and innovation in dental technology through expert articles and videos.
October 1, 2014
Volume 5, Issue 10, October 2014
Page(s): p. 32-33
With almost 30 years of hands-on functional and cosmetic design experience, Creodent Milling Center provides restorations that require minimal adjustment. Our full-contour crown and zirconia copings are milled ready for porcelain or glaze.
Creodent Milling Center was born out of the growing industry need to keep up with modern restorations. Competition for dentist accounts is increasing. Laboratories that are able to leverage the services of milling centers to reduce salary overhead as well as create nearly infinite production capacity will find themselves with a distinct advantage.
Implants have become more and more mainstream. Some insurance companies have started to cover implants, and it is only a matter of time before the rest catch on. Having a milling center with FDA-approved titanium abutments at a low cost and high quality will prove to be extremely advantageous in both marketing and client retention.
Laboratories that have their own abutment design software will find us an extraordinarily reliable and consistent partner that will deliver a finished product identical to their design.
With so many milling machines and scanners hitting the market, it is becoming more enticing for laboratory owners to get into the game. We would like to provide a word of caution: Many hidden costs are associated with running scanners and milling machines. CAD/CAM technology has allowed us to mechanize the creation of restorations, but the commercialization and efficiency that is usually promised by machine companies cannot be realized without multiple scanners and milling machines. Most manufacturers will only give you the ideal situation. CAD/CAM technicians need to be specialized as scanners, designers, CAM specialists, and machine operators. For example, the scanning process has significant downtime. In order for a technician to achieve maximum productivity, you must have multiple scanners. If a skilled designer spends too much time scanning, then workflow becomes inefficient.
What machine companies do not talk about are errors that occur when using milling machines. This is a common dilemma that requires expertise to diagnose and resolve quickly. Training that is provided by the manufacturers to self-resolve is insufficient. To truly be competitive, one must employ highly skilled CAD/CAM engineers. Engineers of this level are not easy to find. When considering the decision to purchase, we would recommend that only very large commercial laboratories invest in CAD/CAM. Only such companies can find the economic and employee resources to truly take advantage of the CAD/CAM technology. Any small-scale operation will find that the savings compared to using a milling center will be eaten up in labor inefficiencies and machine maintenance over time. This is especially true when milling metal restorations with lower-end milling machines, which are prone to breakdowns.
If smaller laboratories instead dedicate these resources to marketing, they will probably gain more in the long run.
Titanium customized abutments for most major standard implant systems are not new. With so many inexpensive and low-quality milling machines entering the market, many small milling centers have opened in the past few years. This should be a concern for dental laboratories that are purchasing these products as well as dentists. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates titanium customized abutments as medical devices that require FDA 510(k) approval.
FDA requirements:
Titanium-customized or patient-specific abutments are Class II medical devices required to have FDA 510(k) premarket clearance.
Dental implant abutment milling blanks have no general clearance. Any company that is manufacturing or milling the dental implant to abutment interface should be registered and listed.
Benefits of using a 510(k)-approved device:
Passing of rigorous 5-million-cycle bench testing.
Detailed engineering drawings and reverse engineering drawings are required with statistical data to validate designs and fit tolerances.
Manufactured by FDA-registered facilities that are required to follow Good Manufacturing Practices and are audited by the FDA for proper implementation of a quality management system similar to ISO 9000.
Solidex Quality Guarantee
In the event of implant breakage after Solidex is placed, Creodent Milling Center will refund the cost of the implant fixture and replacement abutment if the original manufacturer of the implant voids the warranty.
For More Information
Creodent Milling Center
P 888-803-4242
W creomc.com
E info@creomc.com
New York, NY
