AG.Live CON highlights the key trends of transformation in the dental industry

Digitisation in the dental industry is unstoppable. It heralds change and at the same time offers enormous potential. The fact that many dental technicians and dentists want to seize these opportunities is evidenced by the large number of participants at AG.Live CON. 38 international speakers presented the blueprints for a new dimension of unified dentistry in numerous live presentations and discussions. All contributions are still available free of charge at http://show.aglivecon.digital.

The benefits of digitisation are clear, as Prof. Dr. med. dent. Daniel Edelhoff explained in the panel discussion: "In more and more clinical work processes, analog steps are being replaced by digital technology, which brings about enormous advantages: the simplification of process steps, reproducibility and a high degree of predictability." However, the communication gap between dental technicians and dentists emerged as a key issue in the panel. "Laboratories have invested heavily over the past few decades and digitised in the field of CAD/CAM. However, digitisation currently stops at the interface with the dentist," said master dental technician Andreas Kunz during the panel discussion. The experts unanimously agreed that the greatest deficit currently lies in combining all available patient data in a meaningful manner and then using these data to provide patient-specific treatment.

More than the sum of its parts

What is important is teamwork for the benefit of the patient. "For a complex restoration, you need a highly competent partner in the laboratory and a highly competent clinician. Then their combined expertise is more than the sum of the individual parts," emphasized Prof. Dr. med. dent. Florian Beuer. The objective must be for the two to join forces in the best possible manner. This is precisely the mission that Amann Girrbach has set itself and, after five years of development work, has launched AG.Live, the largest digitisation offensive in the company's history. This web-based portal for collaboration between laboratories and dentists offers perfect digital services at all levels. To give an example, AG.Live as a central tool for digital case management, a networking, infrastructure and material management, support and knowledge database will gradually replace the previous C3 customer portal.

On the one hand, the platform networks machines and materials in the laboratory, thereby simplifying processes and increasing quality and reproducibility. The biggest advance, however, is providing the link in a growing global network of digitally operating dental professionals. This bridges the interdisciplinary gap between dentists and dental technicians and facilitates future-oriented cooperation. In this network of optimised and new partnerships, the participants can focus on their strengths and better position themselves on the market.

Extending Ceramill CAD/CAM workflow to the dentist

AG.Live also forms the basis and interface for the Ceramill Direct Restoration System (DRS), with which Amann Girrbach extends the digital Ceramill CAD/CAM workflow to the dentist. The Ceramill DRS Connection Kit, consisting of the Ceramill Map DRS intraoral scanner, the appropriate scanning software as well as the connection to the AG.Live platform, serves as the entry-level variant. Any order data including all the required information can therefore be shared seamlessly and in real time, as the practice is linked fully digitally to the laboratory via AG.Live. This permits same-day dentistry for simple restorations, also with zirconia by using the Ceramill DRS High-Speed Zirconia Kit.

This is supplemented by the Ceramill DRS Production Kit, which allows fabrication to be performed directly in the practice by the dentist. Here, the laboratory can assist the practice in terms of design, know-how, service and advice.

This results in 3 Ceramill Team Workflows, which can be used depending on the kit equipment and team constellation. Due to the modular design, it is possible to start on a "small scale" with the Ceramill DRS Connection Kit and upgrade to the Ceramill DRS Production Kit at a later stage.

AG.Live and DRS as well as all digitization solutions from Amann Girrbach support practices and laboratories on the journey that Prof. Dr. med. dent. Jan-Frederik Güth describes in his summary of the panel discussion as follows: "Patient-oriented, focused, personalized, team-oriented, simplified and digital - that's where the journey is headed."