Happy New Year! I hope you had a great holiday season and that your 2026 is off to a great start.
If you have participated in one of my in-person lectures or webinars on 3D in the last eighteen months or so, you probably remember me discussing 3D design systems. One of them I've been mentioning is DentBird. The company has created a Cloud based 3D design system for crowns that, from its very beginnings, has featured a ton of AI features.I've tinkered with the platform quite a bit and I have been impressed with the system. You upload the stil files from your intraoral scan and the system pretty much does the rest for you. The AI allows it to automatically identify the prep, find the margin, and design the crown... all with minimal user input.
The system does a very nice job of design, but if you don't like something, every step allows for easy editing so that whoever is doing the design gets *exactly* what they want in the end. As I write this, the system only creates crowns, but focusing on just one thing has allowed them to create something that does that job well.
The financial model is also one I like. Creating an account and tinkering with it is free. You only pay when you want to download a completed design file. That means you can try it and see if it's for you without any out of pocket expenses.
I recently received an end of year thank you email from the company and it contained an interesting tidbit of info which I'd like to share. According to the company:
Posterior crowns produced with Dentbird consistently reach a level that surpasses the output of an entry-level dental technician. This is no longer just a promise for the future, but a proven production standard for both labs and clinics.
Now how they determined that fact is not indicated, however I'd like to think they didn't just pull it out of thin air. My point is that AI is here. It's changing our workflows and it's only going to get better. There will still be a need for lab technicians. Difficult or aesthetic cases will require a human mind and a human eye. I love tech, but the one thing AI has shown me so far is that a machine cannot do things that require a human soul. Computers are great with numbers and memory, but something that requires a true artist, isn't going to be done by a machine for a while... if ever.
However, the industry is going to see a shift. In-office fabrication is going to see some decent growth. The ability of mills like the DGSHAPE DWX-43W (that I use in my office) can create amazing crowns, but those amazing results require amazing designs. Utilizing AI to create those designs will make the process easier. Mills and 3D printers are going to allow offices to create bread and butter cases in-house, which is going to change things and drive growth.
Here is the email I received from DentBird:
Dear Dentbird Family,
As we come to the close of this year, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the warm support you have shown Imagoworks. The valuable feedback you’ve shared while using Dentbird in your daily practice has been the most important foundation for our growth.
Today, a new ground rule has been established. Posterior crowns produced with Dentbird consistently reach a level that surpasses the output of an entry-level dental technician. This is no longer just a promise for the future, but a proven production standard for both labs and clinics.
Over the past year, our focus has been on strengthening that standard through stability and automation. By reinforcing product reliability and enabling automatic model generation within crown workflows, we aimed to deliver consistent, high-quality results at scale, with less dependency on manual effort or specialized training.
AI is rapidly transforming dentistry. At Imagoworks, our commitment is to keep Dentbird at the forefront of this transformation, empowering you not just to adapt, but to lead with AI.
We will continue to listen closely to your voices and strive to deliver an even more seamless and refined experience in the coming year. Thank you for being part of our journey. I wish you and your teams a restful year-end and a successful start to the year ahead.
Warm regards,
Youngjun Kevin Kim
CEO, Imagoworks
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