Dentsply Sirona announced that a college student outperformed over 30 dental laboratory professionals in a Software Design Competition using the Company’s inLab^® software. The contest was recently held at the Dental Lab Owners Association of California’s (DLOAC’s) 13^th Annual International CAD/CAM Expo & Symposium on November 17-19, 2016, in Orange County, California.

Shortly after learning the software program that same morning, Zhen Yin, a student at L.A. Community College, took home the grand prize of $5,000 for his winning designs using the inLab software. “The inLab software was very easy to use and made designing each restoration quick, efficient, and actually fun,” remarked Zhen. “I am very proud to say that I won this contest among so many talented and experienced laboratory professionals.”

In fact, all four winning designers (first through fourth place) used the inLab software. Software Design Competition creator, Jean Chiha, President of DLOAC, said, “I wanted to make sure that it was a very well-rounded and fair competition so I choose a wide range of judges and design software from a variety of manufacturers to ensure that all designs were judged without bias.”

All contestants were free to choose from a number of software design platforms to work on for their restorative challenges including Cercon^®, exocad, 3Shape, Dental Wings, and inLab. They then participated in three rounds of competition where they were tasked with designing different restorative requests within a very limited timeframe:

·       First Round: 3-unit posterior bridge (two minutes)

·       Second Round: 6-unit anterior bridge (four minutes)

·       Third Round: Full-arch upper bridge (ten minutes)

Designs were judged on speed, aesthetics, occlusion contacts, and the shape of teeth. Frankie Acosta, one of the judges for the competition, weighed in on the winning design. “I think a big reason as to why Zhen came out on top using inLab was because of the simplicity of the software. Of course his designs were outstanding, but I think he ultimately won because he let the software work for him.”