Modernized 11,000 sq. ft. facility equipped for hands-on dental education and training underscores company’s commitment to lead the industry in advancing professional development of dental practitioners

ZimVie Inc. (Nasdaq: ZIMV), a global life sciences leader in the dental and spine markets, today announced the opening of its new, state-of-the-art educational facility for dental practitioners in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. ZimVie Institute South features over 11,000 sq. ft. of dedicated education and training space, offering the latest life-like simulated patient models, a cadaver lab, and a fully integrated digital workflow with 3D printing capabilities, RealGUIDE™ software, and a mill.

“We are thrilled to open ZimVie Institute South, our sixth and most advanced educational facility, and to welcome clinicians from around the world. Life-like instruction and training are core values within our educational platform. Our new and most comprehensive Institute will allow practitioners to experience the benefits of our innovative solutions, technology, and support,” said Indraneel Kanaglekar, SVP and President of ZimVie Dental. “We look forward to expanding and growing our reach with a modern facility to complement our team’s commitment to continued innovation and education.”

ZimVie’s newest facility expands its Institute model to allow the company to host cadaver and simulation courses that teach advanced surgical and restorative techniques for full mouth reconstructions. It also hosts comprehensive training events on everything from practice management to digital workflow training using ZimVie’s RealGUIDE software. Located at ZimVie Dental’s headquarters, the facility is also home to product manufacturing, allowing Institute guests the opportunity to see firsthand where and how ZimVie products are made. The Institute is now active and is projected to host more than 1,500 dental professionals annually, bolstering ZimVie’s broader educational footprint. Globally, ZimVie trains more than 100,000 dental professionals across its six Institutes and virtual programs every year.

For more information on ZimVie Dental implants, suite of connected solutions, and continuing education, please visit www.zimvie.com.

Ultradent Products, Inc., a leading developer and manufacturer of high-tech dental materials, is announcing leadership changes in sales and marketing.

Steve Clark is now the General Manager of North America and Sean Kennedy is the Senior Vice President of Marketing.

Steve Clark

Steve has been with Ultradent for 20 years, most recently serving as Director of U.S. Sales. Steve has successfully led and developed a very large sales team with significant achievements over the last several years. “Steve’s knowledge and passion will no doubt continue to serve the company well in this new role,” says Ultradent President and CEO, Dirk Jeffs. In addition to U.S. sales responsibilities, Steve will also lead consumer retail sales and client relations teams.

Sean Kennedy

Sean has grown tremendously over his more than fifteen-year career in marketing at Ultradent. During his time as Senior Director of U.S. Marketing, he was instrumental in the many positive changes that have taken place within our marketing team. “We are confident the marketing function at Ultradent will continue to develop under Sean’s leadership,” Jeffs says. 

These changes come as former VP of Sales and Marketing, Karen Phillips, announces her retirement.

Spear Education, a leading provider of advanced dental education, has announced the appointment of Matthew Coggin as its new President on May 1, 2023.

Coggin brings a wealth of experience in the dental industry and leadership to the role, having previously served as Senior Vice President Clear Aligners for Dentsply Sirona. As President, Coggin will oversee all aspects of Spear Education's operations, including course development, delivery, and support services. He will also drive the company's growth and expansion into new markets.

"I am honored and excited to be taking on this new role at Spear Education," said Coggin. “Spear provides an unparalleled educational and practice management experience, and I look forward to working with our talented team to continue to help dentists worldwide achieve their goals."

"We are thrilled to have Matt joining Spear Education," said Kaleim Manji, Chief Executive Officer of Spear Education. "His deep knowledge of the industry, combined with his strong leadership skills and vision, make him the perfect candidate to guide the company through its next phase of growth. We are confident that he will continue to build on our legacy of excellence and help us achieve even greater success in the years to come."

Coggin will work closely with CEO Kaleim Manji as Manji prepares to transition to the Spear Board of Directors at the end of 2023. At that point, Coggin will move into the role of Chief Executive Officer of Spear Education. “I am excited about this next stage of my career as I prepare to move to our Board of Directors,” explained Manji. “I am confident that there will be a seamless transition between Matt and I as we work together to continue to ensure that Spear achieves our important mission of helping dentists and their teams pursue and achieve Great Dentistry.”

Prior to his current position with Dentsply Sirona, Coggin served as the company’s Senior Vice President-Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer, for four years. He also served as Vice President and General Manager for Bausch Health Companies Inc. He holds a bachelor’s degree in applied science in bioengineering and biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins University.

Ivoclar Academy has announced its schedule of upcoming lab courses, listed below: 

June 15-16: "Functional and Esthetic Complete Dentures," presented by Donald Yancey at Ivoclar Academy Amherst, Amherst, NY.

Topics Covered Will Include:

• Clinician and Laboratory tools of communication

• Articulation and Setup Templates

• Anterior and posterior denture setting

• Gingival Waxing for try-in (hands-on)

• Ivobase injection denture base processing system (Demo) 

June 22-23: "Digital Dentures Workshop Featuring Ivotion Monolithic Denture," presented by Patrick Coon at Ivoclar Academy Amherst, Amherst, NY.

Topics Covered Will Include:

• Clinical workflows and how to communicate these to clients

• Denture design using 3shape technology to include:

• Immediate denture design to include model surgery and ghosting pre-op teeth for denture set-up

• Wax-rim workflow

• Impressioning in a copy denture: full upper and lower try-in dentures with conversion to final dentures

• Full denture opposing acrylic partial denture

• CAM procedures

• Post-processing techniques for creating

• Natural looking tooth separation and embrasure contours for milled teeth

• Functional and hygienic denture base contours

July 14: "Maximizing Anterior Restorations," presented by Gary Osborn at Ivoclar Academy Amherst, Amherst, NY.

Topics Covered Will Include:

• Creating the contour, anatomy, and surface texture of natural teeth in the anterior region

• Shading and staining techniques to blend with natural dentition

• Discussion of the theory of proper block selection

July 21: "Prime Time Esthetics," presented by Jeff Smith at Ivoclar Academy Santa Fe Springs, Santa Fe Springs, CA.

Topics Covered Will Include:

• ZirCAD Prime Esthetic material properties and shade concept

• Disc concept and nesting considerations

• Surface finishing and anterior cutback for micro-layering

• Sintering options

• Application and firing of bond layer (foundation)

• Overview of IPS e.max Ceram System

• Micro-layering concept to enhance esthetics

• Application and firing of enamels and Impulse materials

• Contouring sequence simplified

• Creating natural texture thru grinding and polishing

• Maximizing monolithic esthetics

• Zirconia stain and glaze techniques with IPS Ivocolor

October 19-20: "Guided by Nature, Powered by IPS e.max® Ceram and IPS e.max Prime," presented by Yuki Momma at Ivoclar Academy Amherst, Amherst, NY.

• Topics Covered Will Include:

• Understanding the zirconia disc concept, substructure design and shade selection

• Utilize shade analysis with digital photography

• Perform green stage work on monolithic and cutback structures, including infiltration techniques for creating the perfect color background

• Master advanced layering concepts to create the illusion of depth and translucency with minimal facial layering

• Develop natural contours and surface texture using detailed grinding and mechanical polishing techniques

Learn more about Ivoclar Academy's learning opportunities here.

Dental Professionals Can Now Search for Local Community Outreach Opportunities and Register to Volunteer Within the Cloud Dentistry App

Cloud Dentistry, the company that perfected the process of hiring full-time and temporary dental professionals, recently enhanced its platform and simultaneously introduced its “Engage for Change Program” to connect socially conscious dental professionals with public health and non-profit programs in their communities.

“We’re simplifying the process of connecting dental professionals, who want to donate their time and services, to local public health programs for underserved residents of their communities,” said Cloud Dentistry CEO Trey Tepichin. “This will have an enormous grass roots effect on the health and prosperity of communities across the country.”

Here are the details about how Engage for Change works on the Cloud Dentistry dental job marketplace platform.

● The “Engage for Change” program is free for dental hygienists, dental assistants, dentists and in some cases, depending on the event, the front desk staff as well.

● Dental Professionals can browse the community outreach events in their area and sign up for those that pique their interest.

● Posting community outreach event listings is free for event organizers via this link: https://try.clouddentistry.com/engage-for-change

● On the Cloud Dentistry platform, dental professionals can sign up for events that interest them right through their dashboard under the “Upcoming Events” tab.

● Cloud Dentistry will be offering thousands of dollars in rewards to frequently participating dental professionals.

To learn more about Engage for Change, download the FAQs and Features and Benefits documents or contact Community Outreach Manager, Amber D’Andrea at amber@clouddentistry.com. For more information about Cloud Dentistry, visit www.CloudDentistry.com, email to Service@CloudDentistry.com, or call (844) 643-3128. 

The intuitive CAD software for clinics offers an easy path to digitally designed restorations

exocad, an Align Technology, Inc. company and a leading dental CAD/CAM software provider, today announced the release of ChairsideCAD 3.1 Rijeka, the latest version of its CAD software for single-visit restorations. The release features a new tool to easily customize tooth abrasion in real time and gives clinicians the ability to reuse anatomical designs for multiple restorations. This helps save valuable time along the patient journey when creating clip-on smiles for patient engagement, temporaries, and final restorations.

“Clinicians who want to increase patient excitement and accelerate treatment time will love ChairsideCAD 3.1 Rijeka,” said Novica Savic, CCO at exocad. “The improved guided workflows and enhanced ease of use greatly simplify the transition from an analog to a digital approach.”

The new release focuses on ease of use for clinicians who have limited time and want high-quality results. Improved case management with a guided workflow and new 3D scan previews offers clearer steps to final restorations. With ChairsideCAD 3.1 Rijeka, users can now create three-quarter/overlay crown designs and design restorations on stock abutments. To engage patients more and increase treatment commitment, instant in-face visualization is now available in the Smile Creator add-on module. The Smile Window now provides real-time visualization of the results throughout the design process.

Further highlights include:

• iTero NIRI (near-infrared imaging) and intraoral camera images are now automatically incorporated via the iTero-exocad Connector™ when designing restorations, making it possible to visualize the internal and external tooth structure and optimize the process of margin line tracing.

• Upgraded full-function articulator including new “in-skull” articulator allows you to consider dynamic occlusion when designing any restoration with occlusion.

• During anatomic free-forming, the affected parts of the design are visualized, showing the affected parts highlighted in green.

• New built-in screenshot management tools make it possible to collect, edit, and tag screenshots for improved communication and documentation.

In 2022, for the fourth year in a row, ChairsideCAD was selected for the Cellerant Best of Class Technology Award.

ChairsideCAD 3.1 Rijeka is now available in select markets. ChairsideCAD 3.1 Rijeka is an essential part of the Align Digital Platform,™ an integrated suite of proprietary technologies and services delivered as a seamless end-to-end solution to customers. exocad names its releases after current EU “European Capitals of Culture” and selected the city of Rijeka in Croatia for the current release cycle.

Additional information is available at exocad.com/chairsidecad

As part of its sustainability strategy “BEYOND: Taking action for a brighter world”, Dentsply Sirona entered a three-way partnership with Smile Train and FDI World Dental Federation (FDI) in 2022 to improve quality and access to oral health - and specifically cleft care globally.

Dentsply Sirona, the world’s largest manufacturer of professional dental products and technologies, in partnership with Smile Train, the world’s largest cleft-focused organization, and FDI, the global voice of the dental profession, are proud to announce a major milestone in the push to advance global cleft care. FDI and Smile Train, with support from Dentsply Sirona have developed the first-ever global standard protocols for digitalized cleft treatment. These protocols are expected to improve the accuracy and efficacy of the current treatments significantly by providing dental professionals with a comprehensive digital clinical approach across all stages of care.

To create these protocols, extensive research was conducted and consensus had to be reached amongst experts in this field. The workflows outlined in the protocols contain a wealth of information to guide dental practitioners in their work and enable best practice. The protocols encompass the fields of presurgical orthopedics, mixed dentition, permanent dentition and oral rehabilitation. Each field features a remote monitoring and oral health component.

“These protocols will help bring health and opportunity to countless children worldwide,” says Prof. Ihsane Ben Yahya, FDI President. “It took an incredible amount of research and effort to put these workflows together. Thank you to everyone involved in this landmark achievement.”

To make the mass of available information and details user friendly to apply, an interactive tool was created to display all information and help the dental professional navigate through all the different stages of care.

“The new protocols set the bar for the evolution of digital cleft care, leveraging technology that will ensure access to high-quality care for marginalized communities, and reduce the burden of care for the cleft community,” says Susannah Schaefer, President and CEO of Smile Train.

In addition, Smile Train and FDI with Dentsply Sirona’s support have developed a clinical education course that aims to provide cleft professionals worldwide with additional in-depth training on digital cleft care protocols, as well as support them as they integrate digital technologies into their treatment plans. The partnership builds on an ongoing global partnership between Dentsply Sirona and Smile Train, the world’s largest cleft-focused organization, which funded more than 730 cleft surgeries in the first year of collaboration.

“Together with Smile Train and FDI, we are working to advance the future of cleft care and go BEYOND for children with clefts worldwide,” added Erania Brackett, Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Sustainability at Dentsply Sirona. “The launch of these new global protocols is an enormous step forward on that journey, integrating high-quality digital, more sustainable technologies and workflows into cleft care.”

Queens—Women in the Industry is a CE accredited conference event celebrating women in the dental industry. This year's conference will take place on August 4-5, 2023, at the Westin in New Orleans. The event will have information for front desk positions, assistants, hygienist, surgical assistant, designer, denturist, technicians, and dentists!

Everyone is welcome to attend, and the event will kick off with a red carpet Gala. There will be special giveaways announced every few hours, such as a trip for two to the Bahamas, and plenty of time to network and visit vendors.

The speaker line up consists of some the most influential women in the industry, including Renata Vano, Danielle Wunsche, Muriel Deutsch, Dr. Brushra Imam, Dora Rodrigues, Ashley Ali, Alesksandra Polcynska, and Sulay Cardona. Join us as we celebrate all women in the industry!

For more information and to register, visit https://www.queenswomenintheindustry.com

The American Academy of Implant Dentistry Foundation (AAIDF) has opened applications for 2023 AAIDF Student and Large Research Grants. As part of its mission, the AAIDF provides grant funding to researchers who are discovering new and innovative ways to advance the field of Implant Dentistry. Through grant funding, researchers aim to discover and translate their findings into implant dentistry practice. The application deadline is July 1, 2023. No late applications will be accepted.

The David Steflik Memorial Student Research Grants are available to all dental students and those in post-graduate and residency programs interested in pursuing research in the field of oral implantology. Applicants may request up to $2,000 to fund their research project for up to a two-year grant period. Applicants can also attend a future AAID Annual Conference and present the project findings once the research is complete, with reimbursement for travel costs. The AAIDF will provide an additional $500 for travel expenses to the Annual Conference. Applications are due July 1.

The AAIDF Large Research Grants Program is intended to provide limited support for meritorious dental implant research projects which include, but are not limited to, the following purposes:

● To conduct research that determines the feasibility of a larger research project

● To develop and test new techniques and procedures

● To conduct small clinical or animal research projects

● To analyze grant data

Large Research Grant applicants may request up to $25,000 to fund a project for up to a two-year grant period. Successful applicants who require additional time to perform the proposed research may request a no-cost extension of the grant period without additional monetary support. Applications are due July 1.

To apply for either grant, please visit the AAIDF Research Grant submission site. For more information about AAIDF grant opportunities and to see a list of previous grant recipients, visit the AAIDF Research Grant page. Send all additional questions to foundation@aaid.com or call (312) 625-3705.

Benevis, a leading DSO for practices focused on dental care and orthodontics, stands with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) to observe National Minority Health Month. April is dedicated to highlighting the need to improve the health of racial and ethnic minorities and American Indian/Alaska Native communities and reduce health disparities. Poor oral health is a primary marker of social inequality, and Benevis is proud to be a leader in addressing the social, economic, and environmental barriers that inhibit dental care.

The theme for National Minority Health Month 2023 is Better Health Through Better Understanding. Benevis has a 20-year history of understanding the needs of underserved patient populations by providing high-quality care to approximately five million children and adults in disadvantaged communities. The DSO recognizes that not all Americans have equal access to dental care and orthodontics. That is why Benevis has made its mission to improve access and affordability to essential dental healthcare and create dental homes for diverse patient populations with or without various forms of insurance, including Medicaid.

"This April, let’s remember that oral health is healthcare too,” explained Tara McCarthy, VP of Marketing and Community Relations at Benevis. "Healthcare providers across the health ecosystem should continue to educate their patients on the importance of preventive dental care and provide appropriate referrals for those who may not have access to care. With continued effort, we can help close the dental health disparity gap and ensure that all children have access to quality oral healthcare."

The State of Oral Health in the U.S.

Startling, but true, a child’s race or ethnicity can significantly impact their oral health. Studies have found that minority children are more likely to suffer from tooth decay and other oral health issues than White children. Minorities are also less likely to receive routine dental care or preventive treatments such as fluoride varnish, sealants, and dental sealers. Minority children, including Mexican-American, non-Hispanic Black, American Indian, and Alaskan Native children, are also more likely to experience disparities in the quality of dental care they receive compared to White children.

Benevis will deliver on its mission to expand access to compassionate, high-quality oral care and will provide free dental treatment to uninsured families during Sharing Smiles Day on Sunday, May 21, 2023. Dentists and hygienists in 28 locally branded Benevis dental practices across 11 states will conduct dental exams, limited emergency care, extractions, and restorative care, with cleanings offered on a limited basis. It is recommended that patients make an appointment.

Benevis also encourages other dentists and DSOs to expand their reach and to help close the divide in quality oral care for minority populations. Diversifying the existing workforce of dental professionals to better support the demographics of underserved communities could also help to improve oral healthcare in disadvantaged populations. To get started, Benevis has provided the following educational resources:

White paper: Addressing Social Determinants of Health to Improve Dental Health Equity in Children. Benevis addresses the effects social determinants of health (SDOH) have on children’s oral health and what can be done to improve these devastating health disparities. By working with policymakers, healthcare providers, medical professionals, educators, and others, we can ensure that no child is left behind when it comes to achieving good oral health.

Infographics:

Diversity in Dentistry: Where We Are and Why it Matters.

Dental Health Disparities: Greater for Minority Kids and Adults.

To join the Benevis team or inquire about partnering with the DSO, please click here.