Sirona MC X5 offers freedom of choice

Sirona's brand new inLab MC X5 milling unit is taking the dental technology industry by storm. Dean Bergmann and Image Dental Studio were one of the first sites in Australia to take delivery of the new open milling solution.

Here at Image Dental Studio, we started thinking some time ago about the direction our industry was heading and how we could future proof our family business.

We purchased our first dental milling machine 13 years ago. Over the ensuing period, we've gained so much experience and are now very confident with technology in our lab. It's sometimes hard to remember what dental technology was like before even on a short time ago.

Image Dental Studio now has 4 milling systems and a 3D printer - who would have thought that a small lab in Brisbane could say they are now working digitally, with the ability to say "YES" to any situation presented to us!

With the MC X5, Sirona has produced an open system that we find is perfect for our needs. Inlab, Exocad, 3shape - any type of CAD software can be used with the mill. "Freedom of Choice" is here!

So how open is the new inLab system?

inLab enables us to export to any CAD design software, mill on any machine and import any STL design from any CAD software to our new MC X5 mill. Really, "who says Sirona is closed?" We can accept digital impressions from different intraoral or benchtop scanners and design, export and mill with the new range of Sirona inLab products.

Our Sirona inEos X5 scanner can not only scan impressions, but also any type of model, sectioned or solid. It can be used as a standalone scanner as it is totally open, which is what we need at Image Dental as we are using a range of different CAD design software.

The MC X5 really and truly is two mills in one - it really can mill wet and dry in the same process. It is fully automatic in switching from one to the other without me having to do a thing. It cuts discs from any supplier or grinds and mills multiple blocks of any material at the same time. Another big advantage of the Sirona MC X5 is that it can be used as a standalone mill integrating with a non-Sirona system as the CAM software that comes with the mill is totally open. It allows me to design in other software such as Exocad, 3Shape or any other CAD software as long as I can export in STL.

What does flexibility give you?

It enables us to use a huge range of applications and design multiple types of restorations from any type of material. It allows us to then mill these restorations with the MC XL or MC X5 or any other mill. The CAM software is also so flexible that it even allows me to mill the same file on both machines simultaneously should I want to. I can even use inLab to configure my other non-Sirona mills).

What about support?

It is important to have good support from the company that you bought your equipment from and Sirona gives me that support to enable Image Dental to operate efficiently with the highest degree of accuracy. Thanks to Sirona, we are excited about our business, its future and the industry.