Shop innovation at BDIA Dental Showcase 2024

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Posted by: Dental Design 15th March 2024

“BDIA Dental Showcase is always a good place to see what’s available in the market and what’s new in terms of technology. Having everything under one roof makes it an excellent place to go shopping – you can see everything you want to see in one day and make the best decisions for your business.”

Dr Neil Harris is just one of thousands of dental professionals looking forward to BDIA Dental Showcase, which will be held at London ExCeL on 22-23 March 2024. Neil is the Principal of HRS Dental Care in Gloucestershire and he will be speaking about his journey into 3D printing from within the Business Theatre.

It was around 7 years ago that he began to embrace 3D printing and here he shares how it all began:

“I bought my first intraoral scanner back in 2016, and it made sense that 3D printing would follow as the two technologies are highly synergistic. However, I didn’t know how much I would use it and thought that 3D printing would mostly just allow us to create models from scans.

“Because of this, I started with a cheaper printer. The lower initial investment seemed worth a gamble, providing an opportunity to try it out without losing a substantial amount of money. However, we learnt very quickly that 3D printers can be used for so much more than simply printing models – but the quality of the printer has a major influence over the quality of the products fabricated. After some time, we realised we needed a more robust solution and invested in a far more advanced option from SprintRay.”

Reflecting on the challenges that he had anticipated and how these compared to his actual experience of introducing 3D printing to the practice, Neil says:

“The challenges were far less in reality than I thought they would be. The software platforms make it really quite simple to integrate this new technology and we found it much easier to build into our existing workflows than we initially thought. In fact, we started to use the 3D printer for pretty much everything that we did and now there is always some 3D printing element to our work.”

Having transformed how his practice operates with 3D printing, Neil considers some of the main advantages that the technology has brought the business:

“Our team is working in a much cleaner environment without plaster models and traditional impressions, or any of the associated dust and mess. They get to produce some lab work too, which makes their role more diverse and a lot more enjoyable.

“Our patients benefit from cheaper, faster and better care – we pass on the savings of not having to pay so many lab fees. We can also produce solutions faster with in-house workflows – aligners can be fabricated the same day, instead of the traditional 3 weeks to get them from the lab – and with an extremely high level of accuracy. It’s been so successful that we have moved from producing approximately 30% of our work in-house, to 80%.”

Neil will be sharing his journey in more detail during a session at BDIA Dental Showcase, exploring the practical implementation of 3D printing in the practice. About his session titled “3D Printing in General Dental Practice – The Future is Now!”, he comments:

“I will show how my practice has evolved to where it is now and how we implemented 3D printing. I will also consider how we have managed the changes in materials as these have been introduced over time – the materials we use today are not the same ones we were using two years ago. This field is developing very quickly, with new materials coming online all the time and it’s important to utilise these in order to open up new avenues for practice growth.

“During the session, we will also cover some of the techniques involved with the production of aligners and models, splints and surgical guides, including the associated costs. A comparison will be made between lab production and in-house 3D printing, plus we’ll consider some of the technological improvements coming down the line.”

For colleagues who are interested in doing something similar for their own businesses, Neil offers some advice:

“3D printing is currently considered cutting-edge technology, but I’d be surprised if 50% of practices don’t have the equipment in-house in the next 5 years. It’s not a case of if but when practices get involved. 3D printing has revolutionised the way we practice – making our patient services so much faster, more efficient, more cost-friendly and even more accurate than when we were working with labs.”

In addition to relevant educational sessions, BDIA Dental Showcase 2024 will also host the extensive trade show that is it renowned for. There will be several companies offering 3D printers and related materials, so this will be an excellent opportunity to find out more from the product experts and even watch some live demonstrations.

Registration for BDIA Dental Showcase 2024 is free – secure your place today at dental-showcase-2024.reg.buzz/register-free-pr!