Glidewell Symposium Draws 700-Plus
Laboratory owners often tout the importance of attending clinical trade shows to network with dentists and learn what they are learning. Jim Glidewell, CDT, took it a step further as Glidewell Dental hosted more than 700 dentists at the sold-out Glidewell Dental Symposium on October 19-20 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.
"The show has really been well received, and that is heartwarming," Glidewell, the President and CEO of Glidewell Dental, said in an exclusive interview with AEGIS Dental Network.
The symposium's first day consisted of 12 20-minute lectures, inspired by the popular TED Talks video lecture series, and a keynote presentation by Jack Hahn, DDS. The second day featured a 4-hour workshop session.
One of the most popular lectures came from Inside Dentistry Editorial Advisory Board member Chad Duplantis, DDS, who presented "To Mill or Not to Mill: That Is the Question." Duplantis discussed the Glidewell.io in-office milling solution but also the fact that many cases still lend themselves more to laboratory design and fabrication. He noted that Glidewell is a technician and likely would not sell a product that would make laboratories obsolete.
"It is a great time for dentists to become involved in CAD/CAM," Duplantis said. "The biggest key is we cannot lose sight of the patient's best interest. Some dentists get sidetracked and feel that they need to mill everything, but the laboratory is here to stay and is an integral part of what we do. Laboratories also can be an extremely helpful partner for clinicians when integrating digital technology."
Glidewell himself said the rise of in-office CAD/CAM solutions continues to push his laboratory to be an even better digital partner.
"An intraoral scanner can be used to send information to CAD/CAM software for the chairside mill, but if the case does not lend itself to chairside milling, it should go to the laboratory," Glidewell said. "For the laboratory, having digital capabilities is extremely important, both to handle those cases and to support the dentist digitally. It is one thing to just be able to accept digital files, but what are you going to do with them? You need to be able to machine them quickly and effectively."
Paresh B. Patel, DDS, who lectured on full-arch implant restorations at the symposium, emphasized that dentists need to know what their limitations are with in-office milling.
"‘To mill or not to mill' is a huge question," Patel said. "Scanning is replacing traditional impressions, so dentists must decide for each case whether to mill in-office or send to a laboratory. A dentist just starting out with CAD/CAM should probably mill posterior restorations in-house and send everything else out."
The symposium covered a wide range of other offerings and capabilities from Glidewell Dental, including digital dentures, sleep appliances, esthetic provisional restorations, sinus augmentation, guided implant surgery, artificial intelligence, and more.
"Everything that I am doing in my office that I want to get more in-depth education on, it's all here. Whether it's sleep dentistry or implants, it's all here," said attendee Kavitha Narla, DMD, of Somerville, New Jersey. "It's amazing."
Several other dentists in attendance echoed those sentiments, praising Glidewell Dental as a forward-thinking laboratory partner.
"What is innovative about Glidewell Dental is that they are always thinking ahead to the next step," said Timothy F. Kosinski, DDS, MAGD. "I got involved with them because they created an implant, but they were interested in more than just selling me a screw. The end result is important to them."
