By Daniel Alter MSc, MDT, CDT
exocad’s Insights 2024 was held for the second time in beautiful Palma de Mallorca, Spain and this year’s festivities certainly did not disappoint with over 50 partners exhibiting and educating to a sold-out audience of 850 dental professionals traveling from over 25 countries in order to assemble in one location to elevate their knowledge and dental practice. The overall motto to exocad’s recent innovation, as stated by exocad’s Chief Commercial Officer Novica Savic, was, “you need to be innovative to lead!”
The energy of innovation was certainly front and center, as new software product releases were announced and celebrated by all in attendance highlighting exocad’s software sessions focused on state-of-the-art workflows with exocad’s DentalCAD, ChairsideCAD and exoplan. Lectures from renowned international Key Opinion Leaders included a presentation on the power of avatars in dentistry by Dr. Miguel Stanley, smile design insights from Dr. Guilherme Saavedra and Dr. Elaine Halley, and an exciting look at occlusion with Master Dental Technician (MDT) Edris Rasta. Dr. August de Oliveira also lectured on 3D printing and exocad for the general dentist.
The new Elefsina 3.2 release series took center stage, offering bone reduction guides as well as the anticipated and desired stackable guides to perform all-on x guided surgery. Furthermore, collaboration with iTero intraoral scanners was demonstrated to integrate the two capabilities in a singular platform for capturing data through scanning with iTero and enjoying the robust CAD solutions and workflows of exocad with what was termed the iTero-exocad Connector. Ashley Byrne and Dr. Marcos White of the UK presented on communication and the benefits of using the iTero-exocad Connector in their daily practices.
At the close of the event, the UK lab and dentist duo Kristina Vaitelytė and Dr. Eimear O’Connell displayed an innovative team approach to bringing the worlds of restorative and orthodontics closer together: exocad’s A.R.T., Advanced Restorative Treatment. And, as part of exocad’s vision of the future, Artificial Intelligence (AI) was announced as coming soon, with remarkable sneak peeks shared. exocad CEO Tillman Steinbrecher said that for him, “AI is all about efficiency, particularly as the profession grapples with the challenges of skilled talent; as well as increasing patient acceptance with the power of visualization in 3D based approach of photorealistic way to connect with patients emotionally.”
Patients connecting emotionally was profound with the use of realistic video preview, where patients are able to see side by side their current smile side by side with the AI incorporated Smile Creator, all in an organic and fluid motion of video while they speak and interact naturally. Understanding the power of AI was evident and Steinbrecher reinforced their position of AI within the exocad ecosystem that the users will always stay in control, “as AI is automation with full users’ control.”
“This is the most amazing opportunity for global collaboration,” said Beth Collington, President of exocad North America. “The opportunity to educate in tandem about Align Technology’s other innovations while offering tremendous benefits for the dental community, to access best in class CAD software and scanning technologies together. I am looking forward to the future as we continue to support and expand this seamlessly integrated solution that can truly benefit everyone, from clinician to patient.” Similarly, Dr. August de Oliveria, DDS and Director of MOD West in Los Angeles, California shared his excitement for what has been shared at the Insights event. His excitement was based around the concept of the digital human or the digital patient, “where incorporating smile creator, face scans, cone beam and intraoral in one digital dental avatar”, something de Oliveria considers “the holy grail for cosmetic dentistry, whereby ultimately the dental patient is the benefactor.”
exocad Insights 2024 also provided its vision of the future previewing AI-based crown design and advanced visualization within exocad’s Smile Creator. The future is very promising for dentistry with tremendous, continued innovation and something for all members of the dental restorative team to continue to stay abreast of in the coming months, and certainly for the next exocad’s Insights 2026.
