The emergence of digital dentistry brings speed, ease of use and predictability to crown procedures. Restorative dentists whose practices rely heavily on single-unit crowns gain significant advantages when committing to in-office milling. Some critical advantages of in-office milling include:

• Reduced chair time
• No VPS impressions or bite registration
• No need for fabrication and cementation of temporary crowns
• No sensitivity, microleakage or pulpal insult from temporaries
• No emergency appointments to repair, remake or recement temporaries
• No lab delays
• No need for second appointment for crown delivery

Other benefits include increased productivity, faster collections, an improved patient experience that builds loyalty and referrals, new patients attracted by the promise of single-visit dentistry, and greater control over your most precious commodity: time.

More and more patients are demanding single-appointment dentistry. This appeal is illustrated by a dental patient survey conducted in 2015 by Exevia GmbH,¹ which found that:

• 85% of patients would prefer same-visit dentistry
• 50% would pay more to receive a restoration in one appointment
• 67% would travel farther
• Two out of three would change dentists to book a single-visit appointment
• Same-visit crowns are the No. 1 patient-requested dental technology

Glidewell’s fastdesign.io™ Software and Design Station with CrownAI™ uses exclusive AI and machine-learning algorithms to ensure the highest levels of accuracy. The AI collects information from Glidewell’s extensive database to use with the case at hand, providing doctors with a 3D design ready for approval. Additionally, the included MarginAI™ software auto-proposes margins, reducing the design process to minor modifications that can typically be completed in a matter of minutes by a team member, with the doctor simply providing final review and approval.

Dr. Cary LaCouture, who provides single-appointment BruxZir^® crowns using glidewell.io at his practice in Parker, Colorado, observed: “The fastdesign.io Software and its intuitive CrownAI technology made it easy to adopt same-visit dentistry, which has transformed our practice. Team members are able to complete crown designs in minutes, and 90% of the time our doctors don’t even need to touch the mouse.”

This intuitive crown design software not only results in precise-fitting, patient-pleasing crowns in one quick appointment, but also frees up the dentist’s time to focus on patient care. Crown design with glidewell.io requires minimal effort, with many dentists opting to have their dental staff handle this element of the samevisit workflow.

“You don’t want a system that requires hours and hours of training or specialized skill to use,” said Dr. LaCouture. “The glidewell.io system is intuitive enough for my whole staff to work with, and the support is there whenever needed.”

Dr. Michael Buck, who practices in Creston, Iowa, echoes this sentiment: “The designs that come back from the software are very precise and don’t need much, if any, adjustment. It’s all very straightforward and fast.”

The fastmill.io™ In-Office Mill is the only chairside milling unit capable of producing BruxZir NOW crowns. While the crown is milling for one patient, you have the flexibility to move on to your next patient, resulting in a more efficient workflow. Because the material is already sintered, your BruxZir crown will be milled and ready for delivery in under 40 minutes.

Like the fastdesign.io Software, the fastmill.io was initially designed for use in the lab and has been modified for use in the dental office. The fastmill.io can accelerate at 1G, which is faster than nearly all current Tesla Model S vehicles, making it quite possibly the fastest-accelerating milling machine in the world.

A key benefit to using a lab-quality milling machine is that doctors can mill BruxZir NOW — the pre-sintered zirconia block that can be milled and delivered with no oven time, firing or glazing required — right in their office. It is literally as simple as milling, polishing, cementing and moving on.

BruxZir Zirconia is the No. 1 prescribed restorative material, cited as one of the most important developments in modern dentistry by Dr. Gordon Christensen. It is proven to be an ideal material for single-unit restorations in the posterior, and now with the advent of BruxZir Esthetic, it is rapidly replacing IPS e.max^® crowns as the go-to selection for anterior cases.

“BruxZir NOW crowns turn out excellent with the glidewell.io In-Office Solution. I’m surprised at how polished the crown comes out after the milling process,” says Dr. Anthony Marbell, who practices in Cary, North Carolina. He continues, “I thought we’d have to go in and repolish it and do additional work, but it comes out very smooth and you can pretty much cement it right away.”

According to Dr. Scott Barton from San Antonio, Texas: “A lot of dentists say, ‘I’m not going to bother with chairside milling if I can’t do BruxZir restorations.’ Well, with glidewell.io, you can!”

Dr. Thomas Rolfes, based in Costa Mesa, California, summed it up when he said: “Our practice invests in new technology that will help give our patients the best results possible. With glidewell.io the results are outstanding. Same-visit crowns have increased our profits so dramatically that the system has paid for itself in less than a year. That’s the type of investment we’re happy to make.”