Optadent Solutions has built its reputation by doing one thing exceptionally well. The Leeds-based dental laboratory specialises exclusively in removable prosthetics, from full and partial dentures to titanium frameworks, and refuses to compromise that focus by spreading itself too thin.
Managing Director Antony Wainwright said: “We specialise only in removables. We don’t step outside of our lane. We have certain products that we produce very, very well, and we don’t dilute that quality by trying to do too many things.”
That single-minded pursuit of quality has driven the laboratory’s transition from a traditional analogue workshop to a fully digital operation, with 3D printing now at the centre of everything it produces.
Project Brief:
Before going digital, Optadent Solutions operated as a typical removable analogue laboratory, and the workload that came with it was punishing.
Antony, who spent 20 years producing traditional cobalt chrome dentures, said: “I was doing frameworks, and that’s the whole rigmarole of designing, surveying, blocking out. A two-day process just to get one framework.
“You’d have to do the set-up in wax, send it out, get it back, and then go through the whole flasking, bulk trimming, grinding, polishing, fitting the denture down.
“Even speaking about it now, I can’t believe how time-consuming it was. The amount of times we were working long, long hours just to do what seemed like quite a modest amount of work was quite shocking, actually.”
Director Magdalena Wainwright remembers the analogue days just as vividly: “I was covered in dust from top to bottom. I was working at least 12, 14-hour days, sometimes wondering why is this denture not fitting the model?”
The laboratory needed a manufacturing solution that could remove the manual burden, guarantee accuracy and allow its technicians to focus their skills where they add the most value.
The Solution:
Optadent Solutions invested in the Stratasys J5 DentaJet, supplied and installed by SYS Systems, the UK Platinum Partner for Stratasys.
Designed specifically for the dental market, the J5 DentaJet prints full-colour, multi-material, monolithic dental parts, including dentures, frameworks and models, in a single build. Using Stratasys TrueDent resin, teeth and gingiva are produced as one solid unit with no bonding required.
The difference was clear before the machine had even been purchased.
Antony said: “What we noticed immediately, just by going down to visit the SYS team in Derby, was that the amount of dentures and parts for framework dentures that we could mill within 24 hours could be done within three hours on the Stratasys, in one go.
“On top of that, there’s no need for us to bond the teeth to the pink, because it’s all in one solid unit. So it’s a time saving in terms of production, but it’s also a time saving in terms of labour.”
The printer is now integral to a workflow Antony has designed specifically around titanium framework dentures, a modern replacement for the traditional cobalt chrome appliances he spent two decades producing by hand.
Antony said: “The Stratasys itself is absolutely crucial to that workflow. Without it, the workflow is completely unusable. We also do a lot of printed dentures on the Stratasys. In fact, we do nothing but Stratasys dentures now.”
The Benefits:
The J5 DentaJet has transformed daily life at Optadent Solutions.
Magdalena said: “The DentaJet has changed my life massively. The entire process is seamless. There are no errors, there are no nasty surprises. I just sit, design, send it down to the machine, and after three or five hours I can have six dentures ready.”
Digital design has also opened up possibilities that analogue methods could never match.
Antony said: “I love designing digitally because of the freedom it allows. We can match teeth in a partial denture, we can mirror the adjacent tooth perfectly, which is not something you can do when you use a standard analogue tooth unless you’re going to spend a lot of time grinding.
“If you’ve got a really big tooth, a really short tooth, super-wide teeth that don’t fit standard denture tooth moulds, you can make it all. The ability to do that and then get the finished product at the end because of the J5 is unbelievable for us.”
Magdalena added: “We can print multiple colours, so customisation of the denture now is not limited. I can internally paint the stain inside the tooth. I can make the teeth different shades all the way around. On one denture I’ve made a clear palate with pink flanges. Dentists love it, patients love it, because they can see through it.”
Reliability has proved just as valuable as speed. The machine runs two or three builds a day, every day, and has never misprinted. That consistency allows the laboratory to work ahead of schedule rather than to the last minute, leaving time to accommodate changes without moving patient appointments.
In fact, the workflow became so dependent on the printer that Optadent Solutions invested in a second machine purely as a contingency.
Antony said: “We ended up relying so much on the first one that our entire workflow went through the machine, so we bought the second one just in case the first one ever broke. Touch wood, so far we’ve never had a problem with it.”
Why SYS Systems?
For Antony, the decision to buy came down to trust as much as technology.
He said: “As a business owner, when you are investing so much money in two printers, I need to know that should anything ever go wrong, the people I bought the machine off have my back. No one wants to invest thousands and thousands of pounds in high-end equipment and then be lumbered with it should it have a problem.
“SYS gave me that assurance that should anything ever happen, I’d be able to speak to one of the team within five minutes.”
Magdalena agreed: “I think I had that many questions that I’m actually on the blacklist with the guys from SYS, but to be fair, they have been nothing but brilliant. The support I received from Morgan, Tom and Chris has been amazing, and I’m very, very grateful for every single answered question.”
Looking ahead, Antony is in no doubt about where the industry is going: “I see 3D printing evolving and being the mainstay and main manufacturing method of dentures. A lot of people think digital dentistry is you click a button and you get a denture, and it’s very far from that. Your skill set transfers directly to digital dentures, except instead of using wax and a Bunsen burner, you’re using a computer.
“The materials are going to get better and better. The younger technicians are going to learn digital skills from the get-go. It is the future.”