From Scans to Smiles: How Glidewell is Shaping the Future of Digital Dentistry

When you think about digital dentistry, you might imagine sleek scanners, chairside mills, or futuristic-sounding robotic gadgets transforming the modern clinic. But it’s in many ways the innovations behind the scenes in the dental laboratory — the integration of artistry, engineering, artificial intelligence and data — that are spawning these developments and truly redefining dental manufacturing technology.

From its industry-leading position, Glidewell has spent the last 15+ years building something unique: a digital workflow that combines the craftsmanship of experienced technicians with the precision and speed of cutting-edge automation. The result? Faster turnaround times, fewer adjustments, and a better overall experience for dentists and their patients.

Keep reading to learn how our advancements in digital dentistry — from artificial intelligence and flexible automation to same-day provisionals and antimicrobial 3D printed appliances — are continuing to promote a new industry standard.

Our digital transformation story can be encapsulated by two unlikely partners: David Leeson, Executive Vice President of Engineering, Manufacturing and R&D, and Jason Song, Vice President of Digital Operations.

Leeson came to Glidewell from the high-octane world of Formula 1 engineering and aerodynamics, where precision is measured in thousandths of a millimeter. Song’s background? Commercial sculpture, with work featured everywhere from Caesar’s Palace to exhibits showcasing characters from the children’s literature classic Where the Wild Things Are.

It’s a combination that reflects dentistry’s dual nature: part technical mastery, part creative artistry. At Glidewell, their shared vision is to identify and preserve the best of technician artistry while using technology to replicate it consistently — case after case, at scale.

Jim Glidewell may have begun his career in dental technology as a lone CDT operating from his kitchen table. But, even from these earliest origins, he was obsessed with making dentistry better, faster and more affordable. Only by continuously improving the materials and methods available to dentists could he hope to increase patient access to care and ensure his company remained a step ahead of its competitors.

This obsession has kept Glidewell at the forefront of a rapidly changing industry. For more than 55 years, we’ve worked relentlessly to pioneer the adoption of new technologies specifically tailored to patient-specific dental solutions. This includes spearheading the CAD/CAM revolution in the early part of the new century, the adoption of automation processes and cloud services to increase speed and reliability, and even pushing the limits of machine learning and digital factories — critical tools in accelerating the viability and prevalence of mass customization.

For decades, physical impressions dominated the lab industry. But in March 2023, we hit a milestone: digital impressions overtook conventional ones for the first time.

Today, roughly 70% of our cases arrive digitally — and we project that number will exceed 90% within 3–5 years. This shift isn’t just about convenience; it’s about accuracy, speed, and consistency. Digital data allows us to eliminate many variables that used to cause remakes or patient discomfort.

Even physical impressions get the digital treatment at Glidewell. With our in-house micro-CT scanner, we digitize these cases on arrival, skipping the plaster models and giving them many of the same quality and speed benefits as fully digital submissions.

At Glidewell, we’re constantly looking for new ways to streamline manual processes. For example, 64% of our incoming cases are now ingested directly from the clinician’s digital scanner system, forgoing any needless interaction between receiving operator and technician. Our AI software handles the login process and immediately assigns them to our designers.

At the design stage, more than 95% of our restoration proposals are now generated through proprietary AI tools — producing between 5,000 and 6,000 units every day. That’s an output few can imagine, let alone manage with consistent quality.

Our mirrored facilities in California and Memphis allow for lightning-fast turnaround. Digital cases submitted by 2 p.m. — from anywhere in the U.S. — can be back in the dentist’s office before 10:30 a.m. the next morning.

In many cases, the crown spends more time in transit than it does being made.

Digital workflows don’t just make things faster — they make them better. Compared to our conventional methods, our AI- and automation-driven processes deliver:

• 28% fewer seating complaints
• 22% fewer occlusion issues
• 47% fewer fit complaints
• 12% fewer returns

That means fewer adjustments chairside, happier patients, and less time spent troubleshooting.

How, exactly, are we able to see such dramatic quality increases? Our process protects the integrity of the restoration at multiple stages with the following safeguards:

• Digital Twins – A virtual rendering of the crown design measured against the original scan environment serves to simulate seating, assessing contacts and occlusion. And a manufacturing simulation ensures that the design can in fact be milled accurately. These steps alert us to any potential issues before production even starts.
• Wax-Fixture Milling – Conventional milling processes still involve physical handling when it comes to removing sprues — the little retention attachments that allow the mill to hold the crown. To avoid human error at this stage, we use an automated system that delivers wax to hold the crown inside the block, machining the entire surface of the crown without any retention sprues. When finished, we simply wash off the wax.
• Machine Vision Tracking – When making thousands of crowns a day, it can be difficult to properly track them all, especially if relying on manual methods. So we have machine vision technologies that carefully track every case at each stage from start to finish, and update that information in the cloud. Our system knows exactly where your case is at all times. And if the system detects an unexpected holdup, it will review the situation to ensure your case isn’t delayed.
• Automated Glazing – When it comes to glaze application, we’ve seen conventional processes result in deviations up to 25 microns. As small as that is, it’s large enough to affect contacts. So we devised an automated system that applies a glaze layer of uniform thickness across the entire crown surface. No more worrying about a technician having a heavy hand or not rotating the crown enough on one side or the other. Deviations with our system are only 5 microns — an 80% improvement in predictability.
  
• Dimensional QC – The final step in quality control is traditionally the comparison of the finished restoration to a printed model. The problem we found with this is that crown milling often ends up more accurate than model printing. Cases in which we adjusted the crown to fit the model resulted in a higher number of returns. So we no longer rely on physical models unless the doctor specifically requests them. Instead, we take a full 3D scan of the milled crown, compare it against the original design, and let the system tell us whether we’ve achieved the necessary tolerances. This has proven to be a far more reliable indicator of fit within the oral environment.
• Shade QC – Also in the works is an automated system to objectively improve shade matching. To do this, we’ve created a 3D photospectrometer that can handle an arbitrary shaped object. When trained to a standard approved by our very best inspectors, this machine can recognize and reject any sample that fails to match the minimum standard. Though currently in pilot phase, we hope to share the benefits of this in the near future.

While it’s popular these days to tout the use of AI, the immediate question becomes, how robust are your data models?

With Glidewell’s industry-leading volumes, we have an immense amount of data aggregated in the cloud, stemming from more than 30 million cases. This allows us to analyze trends, predict equipment maintenance, and identify training needs in real time.

And because we manufacture our own blocks, abutments, and many of the machines used in production, we have visibility across the entire value chain — enabling complete, end-to-end decision-making.

If a particular piece of equipment has a higher failure rate associated with it, the system takes it offline so we can intervene and fix it. We know what technicians may be involved, alongside evaluation feedback received from the clinician. All of these variables can be taken into account to ensure a more predictable result.

Given the prevalence and acceleration of digital lab manufacturing, one of the most common questions we hear is: What’s next? Being a full-service lab, we aren’t focused solely on fixed crown & bridge, but have invested heavily in digital advances for oral appliances, removables, and more.

Some of our more exciting developments include:

Our ORB Sport^™ Smart Mouthguard tracks heart rate, movement, and head impacts in real time. This tech is now being adapted for dental sleep appliances to provide new patient insights.

In this day and age, it’s easy to throw out buzzwords related to high-tech manufacturing. In an era where most everything is measurable, look for the underlying statistics and demonstrated experience.

Glidewell has been faithfully and reliably stretching the boundaries of dental technology for more than half a century, and refuses even today to settle for the status quo. Practices looking to maximize convenience, efficiency, and predictability need look no further than America’s largest, most innovative laboratory and its storied history of relentless innovation.

Partnering with Glidewell means:

• Faster turnaround times
• Digital precision with fewer remakes
• Proprietary materials and equipment
• Continuous R&D investment
• Industry-leading warranties and support

Whether it’s the tools of today or tomorrow, we’re here to help you deliver exceptional dentistry — more simply, quickly, and affordably than ever.

We welcome dentists every day from around the world to tour our Southern California campus, just minutes from Disneyland and an array of famous Orange County beaches. While here, dentists can gain firsthand access to Glidewell’s numerous technological innovations, such as:

• Fully automated crown milling and glazing systems
• Machine vision case tracking
• Selective laser sintering for partial frameworks
• Micro-CT scanning of conventional impressions
• R&D labs shaping the future of dentistry

Schedule your tour at glidewell.com/tour.