Last month, we had the joy of again attending the Chicago LMT Lab Day conference. What a wonderful experience! Every year, we look forward to the excitement and opportunity of this trip, and this year we extended our visit to attend the CNC Group and Cal Lab meetings.
CNC Group offered enlightening seminars focusing heavily on All-on-X workflow. Dr. Brandon Kafford explained his streamlined technique for chair side conversions in which he uses liquid PMMA in the intaglio to create a quick, accurate, and durable temporary for immediate loading.
3Shape Senior Vice President of Product Strategy Rune Fisker showed us the new TRIOS IoConnect scan bodies for an edentulous arch, which eliminate the need for photogrammetry and accurately capture the arch using a regular intra-oral scanner, saving dentists the thousands of dollars it takes to acquire a photogrammetry camera.
The standout presenter at Cal-Lab was Rob Nazzal, founder of icortica, who outlined some of the current and future applications of AI in our field. Ai was a topic at the ’24 Cal Lab meeting as well, and it’s astonishing to see the speed with which that technology is growing (after his talk, Rob told us that he would be happy to give the same talk next year, but he’ll probably have to update everything in it). His talk mainly focused on programs he and his team are developing to facilitate communication between technicians and dentists.
The trip was worth these two meetings alone, but then the LMT Lab Day conference kicked off. In addition to an expansive exhibit hall where all of the major companies in dental tech supply show off their latest innovations, the conference rooms at the hotel were packed with educational opportunities from some of the leading talents in our field.
All-on-X was also the theme of Lab Day for us, and we attended some highly enlightening talks on everything from photography to lifelike esthetics. Two standout seminars were from Alexander Wunsche and Lukas Wichnalek, who outlined their workflow for completing highly functional and esthetic arches. I won’t go into the weeds here on all the ins-and-outs, but what struck me was the variety of options we have as technicians to process these cases, from a mixture of analog and digital to a fully digital workflow that doesn’t even need to involve a single model. With the right skills and a healthy working relationship, technicians and dentists are more capable than ever of restoring a full smile to those who need it most.
We capped off the trip with a series of seminars presented by RealGuide on their comprehensive cloud-based design software. RealGuide not only makes design easy, but makes it easy for dentists, oral surgeons, and technicians to communicate every step of the way, from planning to completion. We’ll be attending a more in-depth course on RealGuide in April, after which I’ll publish a newsletter dedicated solely to the software. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter so you don’t miss out.
The Chicago meeting was a wild success and a great way to start the year. Once again, we are energized and inspired to continue partnering with you to bring your patients the highest quality of care. As always, we thank you for your trust and your collaboration.
Here’s to a fantastic year!
