First of all, my apologies for the lack of posts lately. Not since the end of Covid have I been this busy. One of the things I realized during 2020 and the shutdown precipitated by the Covid 19 shutdown was that I had become incredibly burned out with all of my travel.
When I suddenly didn't have to go to an airport every couple of weeks, I realized how much of a toll all that had taken on me. When the shutdown ended, I fulfilled all of my travel obligations, but then did my best to dial it back. It was the right choice for me. I needed some time without travel to reset myself. Often in life we are so driven by our obligations that we don't stop to realize what they might be doing to us either physically or mentally. I was burned out and I needed a break.
Since then, I've been a lot more selective about being on the road and it has been good for me. However, all good things come to an end and the last month has seen me return to the road with a vengeance. I've been traveling every week for the past four weeks. The trips have been rewarding and enjoyable, but they have also limited the amount of time I have for posts. Along the lines of travel, I spent Tuesday through Saturday of the last week in Chicago at the CDS MidWinter Meeting.
I went in a day earlier than usual to attend the Dental VIP Summit that was scheduled on Wednesday February 19th. The meeting was the brainchild of my buddy Dr. Marty Jablow and was a terrific event. For the past two years, Marty had been putting together an idea of bringing dental entrepreneurs together with venture capital groups to create an event. The concept was for the idea folks to be able to present their products to potential financiers. I was really impressed with the event.
Normally I have to scour the Internet and trade shows in an effort to find small companies with good ideas, but (selfishly I'll admit) it was great to have those companies come to me. I saw a ton of great ideas presented by smart and dedicated people who are working on getting their products off the ground.
In addition to the product presentations, there were also panel discussions on topics ranging from finance to the direction the profession is headed. I was lucky enough to be included on a panel about the future of tech in dentistry.
The Dental VIP Summit was really well attended and the feedback I got from others that were there was decidedly positive. There are already plans to put together the second annual event next year. In addition to that, Marty and the others involved are discussion holding similar events in other locations. I'd highly encourage you to plan on attending next year. Even if you don't fit into the categories in the attendance profile, I feel that anyone in the dental industry, including doctors, would benefit from being there.
Of course, I'll provide updates on Marty's plans and if other events are scheduled, you'll find out about them here.
Moving on to the MidWinter Meeting itself, I can say with confidence that this in-person event "is back". We've seen a drop-off in attendance with in-person dental trade shows, but the MidWinter meeting was rocking. There were lots of people and the exhibit hall was frequently a mass of humanity as folks browsed the floor. The MidWinter meeting has always been famous for being the meeting where new products are introduced and this one continued that tradition. If you've been hesitant to attend a meeting due to fears of low attendance and smaller presence of vendors, let me assure you that the Chicago MidWinter Meeting is strong. I'll be there next year and I feel you should be too.
If there was a theme to the products shown, it would be the merging of 3D. There were lots of companies showing CBCT, mills, and 3D printing. Those three topics go well together and that is only going to increase. Combining the power of CBCT, intraoral scanners, mills and/or 3D printers which are increasingly leveraging Artificial Intelligence is going to phenomenally change the practice of dentistry. The ability to acquire patient info digitally, easily design projects with AI, and then mill or print those projects now allow us to have a truly digital workflow.
Dentistry has been throwing the term "digital workflow" around for about a decade, but now it is finally here. We now have the ability to go from patient to completed appliance or prosthetic in a totally digital manner. Welcome to the future! It's finally here.
AI is allowing the data to be merged with incredible accuracy. It's now possible to take an intraoral scan and then have that scan embedded into the CBCT to show exactly how the patient appears at that exact moment in time. There are even ways to then allow the images to move in a totally digital articulator simulation. That's going to allow complicated full arch or full mouth reconstruction to be created digitally and delivered with minimal adjustments. All problems and interferences will be detected and corrected by AI. The quality of care is going to go through the roof.
There was also a focus on facial scanning for treatment planning. The ability to digitally scan a patient's face and then display new smiles is now an easy reality. Allowing patients to see how they will look is amazing. Want straighter pretty teeth? Point, click, done. Oh, you'd like the teeth a bit longer? Point, click, done. This emerging tech is going to allow high end practitioners to accurately show patients the results before the process is even started and then be able to use that data to give the patient the exact result they saw. I was blown away.
I also got a chance to spend about an hour at the MidWinter Lab Day held at the Hyatt Regency on Wacker drive on Friday morning. While I didn't have a chance to spend a lot of time looking around, I was impressed with the attendance while also being wowed by the digital equipment on display. There were lots of mills, 3D printers, scanners, and other equipment on display.
I had stopped by to shoot a video for DGSHAPE about the in-office milling solutions they offer and while there I couldn't believe how many cool technologies are available to the dental labs. I'll be doing a deeper reveal on DGSHAPE's new products soon, but trust me when I say you'll be impressed.
So, to wrap up I'd like to tell you that the Chicago MidWinter Meeting is still the place to be in February. Plan on attending next year!
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