As an "on-demand" prosthodontist, Stephanie Yeung, DDS, has a practice style and philosophy that is very boutique and patient-centric. "I maintain a completely digital restorative operation with a dynamic location and schedule," she says.

When Yeung started into private practice, everything was conventional, which meant that a significant number of products and visits were required to complete complex restorative treatments. "After transitioning to a digital form of practice, I gained significantly better control of the time and the number of variables associated with complex interdisciplinary treatment," she says. "Being able to predictably minimize the magnitude of side effects related to potential cumulative errors in the fabrication process is paramount."

As a practitioner, one of Yeung's most important goals is to ensure that her patients receive the best prognoses possible from treatments that are completed as comfortably, efficiently, and esthetically as possible. "Anything interim and/or made of acrylic needs to be easily maintainable and/or able to be remade," she says. "And anything definitive needs to provide the best long-term prognosis possible, which means that it's functional, esthetic, and requires minimal maintenance."

When tackling implant cases, including those involving the All-on-4^® treatment concept, Yeung leverages an open system digital implant workflow alongside Nobel Biocare that includes the SprintRay Pro 2 next-generation 3D printer. As a SprintRay user since 2021, she was looking forward to the company's partnership with Nobel Biocare and the flexibility that it would offer her in optimizing treatment for each patient. "The hardware and resin updates that came with it truly enhanced my abilities to efficiently create postsurgical provisional restorations of every kind possible," she says. "I can now print everything that I once relied on a laboratory to mill, which required serious turnover time. I can rapidly print every type of removable prosthesis, surgical guide, tooth or implant provisional restoration, resin-bonded bridge, veneer try-in, and more-you name it."

Nobel Biocare's open system workflow permits the seamless integration of various digital tools, including scanners, planning software modules, and 3D printers. That interoperability empowers Yeung to truly deliver for her patients. "Owning an entire spectrum of products, from data collection and design software to in-house 3D printing, has allowed me to take a treatment protocol that once took as many as 13 visits down to 5 to 6 visits," she says. "It also made interdisciplinary communication and planning far more effective. Every clinical visit is more predictable and efficient. It allows me to fully control all parameters, which leads to the best overall treatment experience possible for my patients."

Yeung notes that the SprintRay Pro 2 has many features that accelerate turnaround times while maintaining or improving quality. "The 35-µm resolution facilitates a significantly better-defined print when compared with my Sprintray 95," she says. "I also appreciate the design and software updates, such as resin tank management, which make the SprintRay Pro 2 more user-friendly. Gone are the days of using a sharpie to keep track of the age of the resin and tank." Yeung also highlights the predictability of the SprintRay Pro 2. "Once upon a time, misprints were a concern-some due to operator error, some due to printer hardware limitations," she says. "The Pro2's updates mitigate most of these variables, which makes printing far more predictable than before and at a higher resolution."

According to Yeung, two of the key components of a successful digital workflow are control and consistency, and the integration of the SprintRay Pro 2 into her workflow helps ensure clinical predictability-especially in All-on-4 cases. "3D printing helps bring software-based collaboration between the restorative dentist, surgeon, and dental laboratory into tangible reality," she says. "It allows us to minimize the number and magnitude of errors that can be anticipated at each step, which means that the output will be consistent with expectations."

The SprintRay Pro 2 helps to bring that predictability to every stage of Yeung's All-on-4 workflow. "Based on an initial digital diagnostic wax-up, we can generate a surgical plan and print any additional removable dentures, surgical guides, or general visual references as needed," she explains. "This digital wax-up also serves as a template for the immediate load prosthesis, which is also 3D printed. At the finishing phases, 3D printing allows us to rapidly prototype a functional try-in for the patient to experience before committing to a final zirconia prosthesis, which aside from the implants and their prosthetic components, is quite literally the only thing in the entire completely digital All-on-4 workflow that isn't printed at this point."

Beyond the flexibility of the open workflow, Yeung also cites Nobel Biocare's assistance as critical to her success. "I wouldn't have been able to do it without them," she says. "The additional layer of customer support and the broad range of prosthetic components available is what truly allowed me to turn digital implant treatment concepts into reality." In addition, Yeung notes that Nobel Biocare's commitment to ongoing development, even through its partnerships, continues to produce additional benefits. "They'll be coming out with a dual-resin tank for the SprintRay Pro 2 soon, which will allow me to print different projects that need different resins simultaneously," she says. "That alone will result in a massive time savings for printing everything that goes into surgery every day."

With consideration to the reality that all of the Nobel Biocare-SprintRay partnership innovations have been released into the market within the past 2 to 3 years, Yeung emphasizes that they represent a truly a monumental achievement. "As a prosthodontist, these innovations have allowed me more freedom of time and more control of potential prosthetic concerns than ever before," she says. "We are now living in the future of dentistry!"

Key Points

• The SprintRay Pro 2 is available as part of Nobel Biocare's open-system digital implant workflow.

• In-office 3D printing as part of an open digital implant workflow increases efficiency and predictability, dramatically reducing the number of visits required to complete All-on-4 cases.

• The 35-µm resolution of the SprintRay Pro 2 enables dramatically enhanced precision, putting it at the forefront of 3D printing accuracy.

• Bringing 3D printing in-house gives clinicians more control at every stage of a digital implant workflow, enabling them to minimize the number and magnitude of potential errors.

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