Dental Asia May/June 2020

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exocad: Unparalleled flexibility and design freedom exocad Insights, which was supposed to take place in March this year, has been postponed to September due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the dental CAD technology provider held a press conference to keep the community updated on its latest news – an acquisition by Align Technology. Our publications director, Jamie Tan, was in exocad’s headquarters in Darmstadt to speak with Chief Executive Officer Tillmann Steinbrecher and Chief Commercial Officer Novica Savic to find out their thoughts on the dental CAD scene and why their open architecture remains non-negotiable. Mr. Savic, you began training as a dental technician in 1990, and was the best student of the year. What piqued your interest in dental technology? Mr. Savic: I’ll have to give the credit to my wife. Back when she was still my girlfriend, she already knew how much I enjoy doing handwork that requires high precision and creativity. She said, “Why don’t you consider becoming a dental technician?” I was surprised to hear that, but the more I read about it, the more it turned out to be exactly what I wanted. Its connection to medicine and the human body remains magical to me. When did you first start taking notice of dental design and planning software? Mr. Savic: It was in the early 90s when CEREC was first revealed by Siemens (present-day Sirona). Mr. Steinbrecher, your background was in hardware journalism and computer graphics research. How has your background influenced exocad? Mr. Steinbrecher: I’m actually an electrical engineer, but I’ve always had a passion for software. I always find it intellectually stimulating to find solutions to problems. The dentistry world is full of interesting problems that need solving; you’re dealing with various data sources and high precision requirements in a market which is shifting from analogue to digital technology. It’s captivating. Could you share some of the digital revolution you’ve witnessed through the years? Mr. Steinbrecher: Fourteen years ago, even milling a small bridge was considered innovative. Now, we’ve advanced from milling the simplest of restorations to digitally producing the most complex 28 DENTAL ASIA MAY / JUNE 2020
Dental Profile ones. It has been an exciting path, and although not everything we tried, worked; some worked better than we expected. Ultimately, being agile – reacting quickly to the changing market requirements – has been one of the keys to our success. Mr. Savic: When zirconia came to the market, it was a cool material that technicians wanted to work with. Since there was no other way to work with it besides digital technology, the material became a major push for digital. Milling machines have also become small yet still extremely precise, and intraoral scanners have advanced; the next wave will be 3D printing. It’s a privilege to be a part of these innovations. Mr. Savic: Within dentistry, dentures are the last to be digitised. For the 95% of labs that are still producing them the analogue way, the potential to improve the process and save costs is huge. Also, today, when you print dentures, they look natural; the function and fit are also amazing. Minimal post-processing is needed – you just need to remove the supports, and glue and glaze them. Mr. Steinbrecher: We expect the adoption of CAD/CAM technology for removables to be much quicker than it was for fixed prosthetics, simply because scanners and 3D printers are already available in labs. Even if they aren’t, they are not nearly as expensive as the first milling machines, 15 years ago. The latest version of exocad, DentalCAD Plovdiv, has an enhanced FullDenture module that allows the designing of dentures in a guided digital workflow. How has the feedback been so far from users? Mr. Steinbrecher: It’s been very positive. Customers have been asking for the ability to produce dentures digitally for some time now. With the Plovdiv release, our customers have now the maximum choice of production methods. You could print or mill the base and teeth, use tooth cards, or combine these options. Another request is the ability to create single-arch dentures, which we have added in the Plovdiv release. For partial dentures, as opposed to just producing the framework, we are now also able to digitally produce the teeth and the gingiva. As well, the availability of tooth libraries has been greatly expanded. exocad is valued for its open platform and integration with scanners and CAM solutions. How did exocad identify this focus to help machines “talk to one another”? Mr. Steinbrecher: If you look at different markets, the more mature a technology market gets, the stronger the trend it goes in the direction of open architecture software. Let’s talk about home computers. In the 1980s, each computer manufacturer had their own operating systems. Today, with the exception of Apple, everything runs on Microsoft Windows. And if you look at cell phones, 10 years ago, companies like Nokia, Blackberry or Samsung had their own operating systems. Nowadays, again with the exception of Apple, everything runs on Android. So, we see this clear trend that in the more mature market, the open platform software solutions are those that prevail. Mr. Savic: It is a complex endeavour to integrate just one scanner or one milling machine with the software. But it is a completely different matter to integrate 20 different scanners with 10 different milling or printing machines. It is unique how the exocad team does this with the variety of scanners and production machines. Could you share some areas where you are most proud of overcoming - software, hardware, or material challenges - to achieve integrated workflows? Mr. Steinbrecher: I personally think that the most challenging integrations were the ones for clinical products. Compared to dental technicians, clinicians have even higher expectations for integration, simply because they just don’t want to deal with technical problems. Novica Savic This is why we spend a lot of time making sure that when we integrate an intraoral scanner, milling machine, or printer with our platform, the workflow is complete, smooth, and trouble-free. To be honest, that’s pretty challenging. Especially when you do it with such a great variety of products. But we’ve learned to be good at it. MAY / JUNE 2020 DENTAL ASIA 29
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Dental Asia May/June 2020

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