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Dental practice owners may feel overwhelmed with all of the decisions that need to be made on a daily basis, from Human resources issues to equipment purchases. As social media becomes more prevalent, patients are more informed which means a dental office must also maintain relevance. This means advancing their technological capabilities for increased patient communication and decreased chair time.

One of the most confusing and important purchases a dentist will make this year will be to become a digital dental practice or maintain their conventional workflows. This could include an Intraoral scanner, 3D printer, chairside mill, 3D face scanner or Digital CBCT.

Equipment manufacturers, supply companies and even implant representatives are all inundating dentists with information, daily deals and giveaways to entice dentists to go digital. The information on all of this equipment can be extremely confusing, usually resulting in a stalemate where the dentist does not make any decisions at all.

The best way to navigate this process is to analyze your needs and ask yourself what you would be using this equipment for and if the ROI and training downtime is worth the investment.

Prior to purchasing your Intraoral Scanner ask yourself these questions:

How much am I paying for Impression Material per year?

How much do I pay for impression trays and bite registration material per year?

How many crowns do I do a year? How many bridges?

(this info can be gathered from your material providers )

Start timing your Crown and Bridge procedures for two weeks …how many minutes does it take for an impression, separate into CDA and Doctor time. Break down the time and the costs for each provider. This info will assist you in determining which IOS you should purchase.

Carestream CS 3600

Once you have your data:

What procedures will I use this for?

Who will be trained?

Do I require color? Do you have an intraoral camera? If not, this can be used instead of a camera.

Do you want to keep impressions of all of your clients over the required 15/30 years?

Do you want to analyze the changes such as wear, periodontal disease, recession, over the lifetime of your patient?

If I was to see my practice and sell all of my equipment, the new dentist wants to make their own 3D printed models, I want the scanner to be able to be open enough to allow them to do that…Future Proof!

Do I want to send scans of all of my new patients to my lab for storage, access, and security?

Do you want to take this scanner with you to multiple practices? Old age facilities?

As an Associate dentist, would you like to keep all of your impressions and patient data with you as you move from office to office? Would you like to send to your lab of choice instead of the lab your principal dentist uses?

Once these questions have been answered, sitting down with the representatives from the top three Intraoral scanning companies 3Shape Trios, Itero and Carestream and narrowing the choices based on needs is the most reliable and comfortable way to make this decision.

The decision to purchase a 3D printer is the same.

What will I be 3D printing?

What is the cost of the printer, also the trays and materials? Those are usually separate.

Are the materials Health Canada or FDA approved currently? If not, when?

When new materials are available, will my 3D printer be able to print them? From other companies as well?

Do I want to make clear aligners? If so, what software would I require to design the models? 3Shape ortho analyzer? Exocad? What is the cost but also what is the yearly license fee? Does this make the purchase financially responsible?

Most importantly, is my team on board and who will be trained? What is their long term plan for their career?

3D printing will eventually be the future of dentistry. The purchase price can go from 5000.00 to 50,000.00. Formlabs is one of the most cost-effective printers on the market and the most popular in dentistry currently. Eventually, we will be 3D printing everything from dentures to crowns. This shift from milling will eventually happen and confirming your scanners are future proof, as previously mentioned, is very important as well.

About the Author:

Christien Kopas, CRMO
Schell Dental Ceramics, Digital Implementation Specialist and Practice Management Consultant

Christien Kopas began her career as a Certified Dental Assistant over 30 years ago. She offered Hygiene Consultative Services to dental practices facilitating a soft tissue management program across Alberta and BC. She then managed and created a marketing campaign for a large dental practice and was asked to join Argen as the first 3Shape Trios 3D imaging system trainer across Canada. Following that she joined Carestream as the Canadian CAD CAM Specialist, facilitating the sale and support system of the CS 3500, CS 3600 Intraoral scanner and CS 3000 in office chairside mill. Currently, she is the CRMO and Digital Implementation Specialist for Schell Dental Ceramics and Innovation Centre in Kelowna, BC, Canada.

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The post What Matters When Enabling Your Dental Practice with 3D Printing and 3D Scanning appeared first on 3DHeals.

“I know many people in my area are doing research in medical 3D printing, however, different teams don’t really communicate that much with each other and 3DHEALS seems like a great opportunity to gather all people who are passionate about implementing technologies from digital health area into clinical routine.”

 
Community: Kraków, Poland

3DHEALS members can get in touch with: Jan Witowski here

Jenny: Tell us a little about yourself. (Where are you from originally? Where are you located? What are you working on?)
Jan: Hailing from Łańcut, Poland and moved to Kraków for medical school in 2013. I’ve been running a digital health research team at Jagiellonian University Medical College since 2017.
Jenny: What made you decide to become a 3DHEALS community manager?
Jan: I know many people in my area are doing research in medical 3D printing, however, different teams don’t really communicate that much with each other and 3DHEALS seems like a great opportunity to gather all people who are passionate about implementing technologies from digital health area into clinical routine.
Jenny: What do you think of innovations in healthcare 3D printing or bioprinting? What do you hope to see in the next five years? 10 years?
Jan: Right now we can see the research world moving from feasibility and pilot studies to clinical trials. Next couple of years are going to be crucial regarding where and when 3D printing will be actually useful for patients. We will definitely see an increased availability of all 3D visualization techniques, including 3DP and others such as augmented reality. And with advancements in machine learning, we can speed up medical image processing. There is also a question of how well the materials will mimic real tissue in a couple of years. If we can get mechanical properties similar to human tissue then we can talk about serious simulations and mock procedures.
Jenny: If you have done 3D printing before, what have you made/designed? (Photos if available, preferably in healthcare application)

3D-printed liver models used in 2nd Department of General Surgery, Jagiellonian University for planning and guidance of laparoscopic liver resections

Jan: I’ve started playing with 3D printing in late 2015 and in 2016 developed the most cost-effective technique of 3D printing liver models for preoperative planning. Since 2017 I’m running a digital health research team and with collaboration with many institutions in Poland and around the world we have worked in many fields and published several peer-reviewed papers
My main project is 3D printing for liver surgery, however, we have worked with cardiologists and printed models for planning left atrial appendage occlusion, transcatheter aortic valve replacement, balloon pulmonary angioplasty and more. So far we have created just under 100 models which were all used in a clinical setting.
Jenny: Most of our community managers are entrepreneurial and adventurous, what risks/adventures have you taken that you’d like to share with us? Any hopes or regrets?
Jan: I believe that simply devoting your time to creating a research team and working on it every day is a major risk when you are working or studying full time. I have sacrificed time I could have used to study exams and get better grades, but this is by far more ambitious, developing and satisfying.
Jenny: Who would you like to find and to include in the 3DHEALS community you are building?
Jan: Clinicians and researchers who are interested in 3D printing but don’t have the necessary skills or access to equipment, to connect them with others willing to collaborate.
Jenny: What would you like to accomplish with this new 3DHEALS community in the future?

Personalized, 3D-printed model of the aortic root with an artificial aortic valve. Used for measurements and planning transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI)

Jan: Running multi-institution trials on 3D printing clinical utility and moving the field forward 
Jenny: What do you think about the innovation environment (for health tech or for general technology) in your city? What can be done to improve it?
Jan: There’s a lot of skilled and smart engineers and clinicians coming out of Polish universities. Unfortunately, it is often the case that the best ones move abroad to bigger institutions with better funding. That is a bigger problem for another discussion. But we should learn as much as possible how to find yourself in the current system and how to fund and grow your innovations in it because it is possible.
Jenny: What are you most proud of about your city?
Jan: Kraków is a gorgeous city, great for young people. One of the best things is that everyone I know who live or used to live or studied here, all of these people are proud of Kraków and they say it is their city.
Jenny: What are you most proud of about the innovation community in your city?
Jan: As I said the people can be very skilled. I’ve met tremendous innovators with ideas that could change the community, improve people lives, really. It’s a shame that their potential is not fully used.
Jenny: What do you think are the top priorities in healthcare innovations for your city/community?
Jan: This may not be exclusive to just my city or even my country, but moving the research forward onto the clinical trials and providing the solutions to patients. We mustn’t stay in the R&D stage forever.
Jenny: What do you hope to accomplish through your role as the 3DHEALS community manager?
Jan: Connecting all research groups working on 3D printing in Poland to share insights and collaborate – the separation between researchers doing science in a very similar area can slow down the progress significantly.
Jenny: What do you do for fun?
Jan: Playing the guitar, people watching, driving at night, watching cartoons, going to music festivals
 

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Form 2, 3D printed night guard

The extraordinary benefit of 3D printing is that you can send a digital file to a 3D printer anywhere to print. But this ease comes with a dark side – it is easy to steal. Every employee outside contractor that touches your files can also make off with them. Like Napster for songs, 3D printing makes widespread theft of intellectual property for manufactured goods high probably and hard to police. A stack of IP protection is usually necessary.

In one case, Ritani, LLC v. Aghjayan, an employee of a jeweler stole the 3D printable CAD files for several lines of jewelry. The CAD files included designs of parts that had a unique way of fitting together. He sent them to a manufacturer in China to change somewhat, and then 3D printed design casts for new jewelry items to make his own line. The jeweler sued the employee for copyright infringement, and misappropriation of trade secrets.

Surprisingly, the court dismissed the copyright infringement claims, because the employee had changed the designs even though they were still vaguely similar. But the court allowed trade secret claims. Specifically, the court found that the digital files contained protectable trade secrets, even though they were printed into jewelry that ultimately became public knowledge when the jewelry was sold. Specifically, some parts of the internal design and how it is created remained secret. Additionally, the jeweler had specific provisions in its contracts requiring all parties that touch the design to keep them secret.

This case illustrates the importance of a stack of IP protection for 3D printable designs, especially trade secrets enforced contractually. The copyright failed because copyright only protects the actual file data, and near exact copies of the ornamental design. The employee had changed them sufficiently to avoid copyright infringement. Since the jeweler never filed patents on the fitting, all that remained for protection was trade secret. If the jeweler had not used specialized contract language and internal procedures to keep the designs secret, the former employee would have gotten away perfectly legally.

About the Author

Erik Birkeneder MS JD

Erik Birkeneder is an intellectual property attorney at Nixon Peabody that focuses on health care related patents. Erik also serves as outside general counsel for a number of digital health companies and helps them navigate the unique privacy, and other regulatory hurdles that are facing this industry, including in 3D printing. He has a Master’s in Biomedical Engineering from University of Wisconsin Madison where he performed research on the impact of neuropeptides on wound healing in diabetics, and has a law degree from University of Minnesota.

Protecting 3D Printed Innovations

Erik will be presenting on strategies for protecting innovations that are 3D printed, including the digital files with the 3D blueprints in the upcoming 3DHEALS event on orthopedic 3D printing. His talk will cover the basics of how to protect your innovations with trademark, copyright, patent, trade secret and the differences between the types of intellectual property.

https://angel.co/erik-birkeneder

The post Protecting the Intellectual Property (IP) in your 3D Printable Digital Files: A Case Study in the Theft of CAD Files appeared first on 3DHeals.