Creating Your Own Digital Lab-Creating Your Own Digital Lab

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The webinar featured Dr. Katie Ruther presenting “Creating Your Own Digital Lab,” focused on building an in-house digital dentistry workflow. She explained why practices might want their own lab: greater control over outcomes, faster turnaround, easier replacement of lost appliances, improved patient convenience, and lower long-term costs despite upfront equipment investment.<br /><br />Dr. Ruther reviewed the basics of 3D printing, including resin layering, post-processing, support removal, and curing. She described common in-office applications such as splints, models for retainers and aligners, surgical guides, temporaries, and trial dentures. She also discussed digital splint design, model preparation, and crown and bridge workflows, emphasizing margin placement, occlusion, contour, contact adjustment, and material thickness requirements.<br /><br />She covered bridge design, including digitally extracting teeth for pontic planning, connector strength, and designing pontics for aesthetics and tissue shaping. Finally, she discussed staining and color correction for E.max crowns and answered attendee questions about scanning edentulous patients, using leaf gauges, importing STL/DXD files, training assistants, and when to restart scans.<br /><br />Overall, the session highlighted practical tips for creating efficient, accurate, and reproducible digital restorative workflows in a dental office.

Keywords

digital dentistry

in-house lab

3D printing

splint design

crown and bridge workflow

surgical guides

resin layering

pontic design

E.max crowns