The CAP team is delighted to invite you to join us for the LAB DAY Chicago trade show, February 24th-25th, at booth #100, to view, get educated on, and explore some of the most ground-breaking dental lab products currently available. CAP will be hosting various events throughout the exhibition, all within our private hospitality suite. These events include:
Private Demos-hosted hourly in between exhibition times
CAP will be hosting daily demonstrations of our Roland Dental Mill and 3Shape scanners to allow for a more exclusive look at the very latest in digital dentistry.
Beginning at4pm beginning Friday, February 24th, CAP will present our Roland Mixer. Effectively bringing together current and future Roland Dental Mill users in an intimate environment to discuss and connect on their experiences with this innovative technology. The Roland Mixer will present an excellent opportunity to acquire a more in-depth insight into Roland Mill application, and network with those individuals already enjoying Roland Mills many advantages.
We are honored to receive the 2011 JDT WOW Award for our CAP FZ full zirconia crowns and bridges. It is very exciting to be nominated by our customers, and ultimately selected by the industry-leading panel of lab owners and technicians who chose us for this award.
CAP FZ continues to be our fastest growing product that is standing out among its competitors. I would like to thank those of you who gave us feedback to help us develop CAP FZ into an award winning product!
It is with great pleasure that we have launched CAP Academy (capacademy.com) – the first totally free website dedicated to digital dental laboratory CAD education. Over the last couple of years we have spent thousands of hours providing technical support for lab techs that are working to digitize there operations. CAP Academy was developed solely as a resource tool for laboratories worldwide that want to make the move to digital. Spending time in our site will help make you more efficient and knowledgeable in the new world of dental lab CAD.
Our plan is to educational videos for more systems in the coming months. So visit us often and please let us know what additional content you would like to see by going to our Ask a Question page. Please feel free to share the link with a friend: www.capacademy.com
We have been developing a process for producing our CAP FZ crowns in the form of a screw-retained implant supported crowns. This restoration has a titanium base that interfaces with the implant and also has a shoulder that provides the necessary strength for the screw head. This titanium base is fused to the CAP FZ crown which has a screw access hole. This crown has all the same translucency, detailed anatomy, and intrinsic color from our MultiShading process as our conventional CAP FZ restorations. In addition, at 1100 MPa flexural strength we are offering a 5 year guarantee against breakage. Being able to eliminate a custom or stock abutments from the process eliminates a significant amount of cost. See our pricing page for details.
We have published a new video showing step by step instructions on how to finish CAP FZ full contour zirconia. Using this technique, you can enhance the intrinsic multishading of the CAP FZ to maximize the aesthetics of this full zirconia restoration. You can view the video on our CAP FZ product page under the “Stain and Glaze” tab, on our YouTube channel, or right here on our blog. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Tais Clausen, 3Shape CTO and co-founder, scanning in vivo with the new 3Shape Trios at IDS
I had an opportunity to get a close look at the Trios at IDS today. It is a very impressive device with a very rich user interface, especially considering this is the first version of the software for this system. The system is extremely easy to use. I was able to pick up the device and scan a quad (model) in 24 seconds my first time. Here’s a quick bullet summary of the system:
This is not a point and click system. You simply wave the device over the teeth and move freely to capture data.
You can look in the mouth or on the screen. If you are looking in the mouth, an audio prompt will let you know if you have gone astray in your scanning.
The data capture is very quick, and high resolution data is available within seconds of completing the scan
In order to mitigate issues with the operative field changing during the scan (e.g. blood, saliva, tissue covering the margin), there is a feature that locks in the inital scan of the prep so that if you go back over the prep later as fluid or tissue covers the margin, the initial scan is locked in to preserve the margin.
Scanning protocol is similar to other systems: Scan the operative arch, opposing, and then the bite. The bite is captured by performing a buccal scan of the patient’s closed bite.
The high-resolution data is instantly available to be sent to the lab. There is no centralized processing of the data.
The data is available in the industry standard open format: STL.
There is even a version of the scanner that is integrated into a chair.
3Shape Trios integrated into a dental chair
Trios integrated into chair
And now for the best part… here is the demonstration video from the show floor. Enjoy!
In order for us to evaluate the level of aesthetics that are possible with CAP FZ full zirconia crowns, we recently made a full arch study case. This case is made of all CAP FZ crowns with no porcelain. This sample received rave reviews at Lab Day Chicago where we showcased CAP FZ at our booth. Here are some high resolution photos so you can see the case for yourself. (Click the images to enlarge them.)
CAP FZ - Full contour zirconia occlusal view. Click to enlarge.
CAP FZ - Full contour zirconia anterior view. Click to enlarge.
We are very proud to be featured in LMT magazine this month in a full page artice! The article focuses on our use of video for customer training and communication. We love making these videos, and it’s very flattering to be recognized by LMT for this work. There is even an image from our latest Sledgehammer versus CAP FZ video.
The article is in the printed edition, but you can also see it online here.
We have recently launched CAP FZ, a highly esthetic full contour zirconia crown. One of the key attributes that makes this material look so great is its superior translucency. I hear a lot of discussion about having to trade off translucency for strength with zirconia. CAP FZ has flexural strength of 1100 megapascals, and relative to other materials on the market, this is plenty of strength. Now, I’m a very data-driven person, so I like numbers a lot, but I found it hard to understand what 1100 megapascals really means in the real world.
I had recently seen an interesting test involving a hammer and a couple of crowns, so I was inspired to run a similar test on CAP FZ just to get a feel for its strength. I shot a quick video with CAP team members who hit PFM and CAP FZ crowns with a hammer on a 2×4 board. As you probably guessed, the PFM broke apart. The CAP FZ crown, however, just drove straight into the board and came out completely unscathed. After showing the video to a few people, someone said they thought we hit the PFM harder than CAP FZ, giving it an unfair advantage. I took this comment as a challenge, and decided that I need to modify the test as follows: drop heavy object onto each crown from the same height in order to deliver a consistent force each time. So, this weekend, I grabbed my 17 lb sledgehammer and went into the office, marked the wall at 2.5 feet, and went to town on some crowns!
