Monday, December 14, 2015
With the end of the year just a few weeks away, it’s time once again for Dentalcompare’s review of the most popular content on the site from the past 12 (well actually 13*) months. It’s our annual opportunity to take stock of the content most interesting and important to you.
During the course of this week we will publish our Top 10 Products, New Products, Product Categories, Dental Articles and this list of our Top 10 News. Our lists are based solely on your actions while visiting Dentalcompare, as this week is when we count up the number of visitors to every page on our site and let you see which pages on Dentalcompare are the most popular.
As tends to be the case every year, exciting new product announcements dominate this list, but it’s not just a compendium of the year’s most intriguing new dental technologies. Other news items about the companies behind these products and the industry itself made the list. However, the theme running through almost all of these news articles is the continued innovation in CAD/CAM technologies for both chairside use in dental practices and for use in dental laboratories.
Read on to learn about your Top 10 Dental News Articles of 2015:
10. ADA Releases 2016 CDT Dental Procedure Codes – The release of the American Dental Association’s CDT Code books is always important news. Changes and additions to the codes impact the way your practice can bill for procedures, and staying up to date on the codes for the coming year is a part of every successful practice’s operations.
9. New Dental Product: eye-CAD Connect Digital Dental Smart Glasses from iDent, Patterson Dental and Epson – This was certainly one of the most intriguing dental innovations to debut in 2015. Augmented reality is an emerging technology in many industries, and these glasses are one way this technology is being implemented in dentistry. Right now they provide a heads up display for clinicians taking digital impressions, but in the future they might provide heads up displays for guided surgery, guided preps, and more.
8. New Dental Products: Wieland Digital Dentures and Zenotec select ion Mill from Ivoclar Vivadent – This news of two new digital offerings from Ivoclar Vivadent shows how digital dental technologies are being adapted to every restorative area of practice. Digital denture workflows are growing more common, and the latest mill from Ivoclar’s Wieland brand is specialized for improved fabrication with acrylic materials, many of which are used for fabrication of removable appliances.
7. Heraeus Kulzer and Dental Wings Partner to Develop Materials for Laser Milling – This news item proved to be just a tiny bit less popular than the corresponding product announcement appearing next on this list. Materials are really the driving force behind CAD/CAM dentistry’s move toward the mainstream, and this announcement of partnership to develop materials for a new production technology was rightly worth noting.
6. New Dental Product: DWLM Laser Dental Mill from Dental Wings – Directly related to the item above, this announcement from Dental Wings could be the start of a completely new category of CAD/CAM production systems. While most dental mills use burs to carve crowns and bridges from blocks of materials, this milling system cuts using a powerful laser for improved efficiencies and precision.
5. Tony Robbins to Speak at CEREC 30 Event – Another news item not related to products, this one was noteworthy because of celebrity. Tony Robbins is among the upper echelon of speakers, so it’s no surprise that our readers were interested when Sirona tabbed him to present a keynote during its celebration of the 30th anniversary of CEREC CAD/CAM technology.
4. New Dental Products: D2000, D1000, D850 and D750 3D Lab Scanners from 3Shape – As this list approaches the top news items of the year, it makes a shift completely toward CAD/CAM technology, and dental labs around the globe took note when 3Shape announced an entirely revamped lineup of lab scanners. The biggest innovation in this announcement is the D2000, which can scan two models at the same time.
3. Straumann and Sirona Sign Collaboration Agreement – When two of the biggest names in the dental industry announce they are working together it’s definitely worth paying attention. Here we had the announcement that practices and labs using CEREC systems can produce Straumann’s Variobase custom abutments. That was good news for clinicians who like options when placing and restoring implants.
2. New Dental Product: DWIO Intraoral Scanner from Dental Wings – CAD/CAM dentistry always starts with a scan. While the majority of those scans are still done in dental labs, the chairside options for capturing a digital impression continue to expand. This announcement signaled lab scanner mainstay Dental Wings’ entry into the chairside market.
1. New Dental Product: iTero Element Intraoral Scanner from Align Technology – As this list reaches its conclusion it moves from the newest digital impression system to a major update to one of the oldest chairside scanning platforms. Smaller, faster and more versatile, the iTero Element scanner is a massive upgrade, and with the original iTero always one of the most popular products on Dentalcompare, it’s not surprising to see the announcement of this upgrade claim the top spot among news articles in 2015.
*The 2015 Top 10 lists are based on Dentalcompare traffic measured during the 13 month period from November 1, 2014 – November 30 2015.