At University of Texas Health Science Center's School of Dentistry, a lab's partnership with an international digital prosthetics company — and a brand-new technology for taking molds — has improved workflow during the pandemic.
A new style of automated milling equipment for creating crowns and performing other dental restorations, called the Matik and manufactured by Austria-based digital prosthetics company Amann Girrbach AG, uses computer-aided manufacturing software that can mill any dental materials and run 24 hours a day, producing 875 crowns before human assistance is required.
The device, which has received FDA approval and is on the market, is currently being tested by UT Health's School of Dentistry, which will then provide feedback to the company.
It's a vast improvement on the old manual technique of taking molds with an impression, said Dr. Richard Zimmerman, clinical associate professor of comprehensive dentistry at the UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry.
While shipping delays added lag time to UT Health's early adoption of the Matik's technology, they were able to start putting it in use at the beginning of the pandemic.
It was timely, "everything was being affected and we needed to do things in-house," Zimmerman said.
This sort of business partnership is not uncommon for UT Health's School of Dentistry, which also works with crown-designing companies and 3D printing companies to test new technologies on the market against real-life workflow. One advantage to testing at UT Health, Zimmerman said, is the wide range of dental students who can provide feedback. It also helps students gain familiarity with new technologies before graduating.
Amann Girrbach is an Austria-based digital dental prosthesis company with a North Carolina corporate headquarters. Girrbach Dental Germany was founded in 1936 by Herbert Girrbach and Amann Dental Austria in 1972, with the two merging into Amann Girrbach AG in 2004.
