Jason, if you did this case with several months of experience under your belt with this scanner, how would you answer Al's question.. You have less than one month of using a scanner........do you see yourself moving the same amount of work with much less labor, lets say 3 -months from now ?
What do you see a scanner doing for you with-in the next 6 months financially and hours at the bench.
Charles, I see myself moving quite a large amount of work with much less labor several months from now depending on work type. FCZ is now about 65% of my work. Utilizing CAD gives me much more control over the work with much less time involved. In the short time I used it, I was already picking up quite a bit of speed and with continued software updates it is only going to get faster and more accurate. With the new virtual articulation I will be able to have better control over a precisely designed functional occlusion in just a few mouse clicks. Emax CAD really surprised me. 12 minutes and your done. Say you design 4 an hour. Subtract a few for problems and you have 28. They come back and you crystalize them in 24 minutes. I actually stained mine a little especially the occlusion before crystallization. After that you just touch up the color and glaze. Metal frameworks work just as well. 12 to 15 minutes and you have a 3,6, 8 unit bridge completed. Only in NP for now though but still. If you like, do a press over PMMA while designing your coping or bridgework. All in the same 12 to 15 minutes. Heck, even if it takes 20 minutes you could have a 4 unit posterior NP framework with a full contour Press Over PMMA design.
I am jumping all over the place but it will take me awhile to soak in what all I can do and how best to utilize it. May even have a slightly higher manufacturing cost on some types over conventional fabrication methods but you may be able to move so much more with less people and actually go home
Good example was yesterday. I went in at 7:15 and had to see a patient at 7:30. Started working at 8:30 ish. Took an hour lunch and left at 4. In that time I finished, billed out and packed up 22 units. I also built 4 more Emax anterior restorations and unpacked and prepared about 15 units I had received from Diadem. All at a leisurely pace. All thanks to CAD
These FCZ crowns are very quick to finish out once you get the hang of it and are looking better the more I do of them. We are now only waxing anterior Emax units and anything out of the ordinary like crowns under partials etc. I have reduced the workload by about 75% in my wax/metal dept and 65% in the ceramics dept. I intend to continue this trend and eventually utilize the technology for faster turn around times as well.
Probably did not fully answer your question but I will continue to post my future results and hopefully you can decipher what you need out of my A.D.D. moments
