Hello,
This is my first post on Dental Lab Network!
I was wondering how popular the various Dental CAD-CAM systems are with everyone. Are press techniques still more popular than milling or wax printing?
Is milling more popular than wax printing?
I look forward to receiving your views.
If you are talking about pressing ceramics versus milling them, I would say yes, pressing is more popular. At $24 minimum for a single unit blank, it doesn't make economic sense for most labs. The time to cut the piece, the water cooling and the ridiculous little grinders (the Cerec is NOT a milling machine) are not built for any kind of production. They were designed for a handful of units per week done by dentists, and shucked on unsuspecting labs.
3D printing is great technology. Milling is generally slow and wasteful, however there is ONE excpetion to this rule, and that is wax. Cutting wax is extremely fast, and unlike every other milling process, wax milling allows you to recover your scrap, reconstitute it (melt it and make a new puck) and therefore have an almost FREE pattern, cost wise.
3D printing is a maintence headache for most people, unless they love tinkering with things. The materials are expensive, and in my opinion takes too long. I may change my opinion on this some day, but at the moment, I think I'm right.
We are doing 100-150 units a day, 95% CAD/CAM.