Unleash the Future of Full-Arch Design
The world of digital dentistry moves fast, but some updates truly mark a revolutionary leap forward. The latest release of exocad, DentalCAD 3.3 Chemnitz, is one of them. For any dental professional involved in the intricate world of full-arch restorations—from implant-supported bridges and hybrids to advanced dentures—this update is set to fundamentally streamline your workflows, enhance precision, and unlock new levels of efficiency.
We've delved into the new features, and when viewed through the lens of a fully digital, patient-centric workflow like InstaRisa, the improvements are nothing short of game-changing. This isn't just about new buttons; it's about providing the engine for a more predictable, profitable, and patient-pleasing process.
The Game-Changer: From 2D Photos to True 3D Facial Integration
For years, the holy grail of digital design has been to perfectly translate the patient's unique facial aesthetics into the digital workspace. With Chemnitz 3.3, exocad takes a monumental step forward for all users.
The new ability to position the case in the Virtual Articulator using a patient photo from Smile Creator is a fantastic feature. It democratizes facial analysis, allowing every lab to align their designs to the patient's face to verify midline, cant, and basic smile design principles. This alone dramatically reduces guesswork and leads to better initial proposals.
However, for teams seeking the highest level of precision, this feature is a stepping stone to the gold standard: a true 3D digital facebow. This is the core of the InstaRisa workflow.
-
2D Photo Alignment (exocad): Think of this as an advanced tracing and alignment tool. It's a static, two-dimensional map that helps you place the smile within the facial frame. It's powerful and a massive leap over working without a facial reference.
-
3D Precision Facial Scan (InstaRisa): This is the full, uncompromised 3D reality. By capturing a high-fidelity 3D facial scan, you capture the patient's natural head position and the true spatial relationship of the jaws to the cranium. More importantly, you capture the 3D topography of the soft tissues—the lips, cheeks, and perioral architecture. This allows you to design not just for a pretty smile, but for ideal lip support, natural phonetics, and a dynamic result that looks alive and authentic from every angle.
Exocad Chemnitz provides the crucial link to articulate the case based on a facial reference. When you feed it a precision 3D scan from a system like InstaRisa, you unlock the ultimate in predictable, facially-driven design.
Redefining the Hybrid and Full-Arch Workflow
Designing complex, multi-part restorations like hybrid bridges or split dentures has traditionally been a challenging, multi-software process. The new Split Bar / Split Denture feature in the Bar Module changes everything.
When combined with a validated, facially-driven waxup from an InstaRisa workflow, this tool becomes incredibly powerful. Once the patient and doctor have approved the aesthetics and function of the digital try-in (based on the 3D facial scan), the design is locked. The new exocad tools allow you to seamlessly design a robust, supportive bar structure directly underneath this approved design.
This prosthetically-driven approach means:
-
Unmatched Efficiency: Design the bar and the superstructure within a single, cohesive workflow, eliminating data transfers and potential errors.
-
Ultimate Precision: Generate an organic, parametrically designed bar that perfectly fits the available space defined by the approved tooth setup. There is no more guesswork about where the bar should go; it's dictated by the final prosthesis.
-
Enhanced Serviceability: Easily create two-part restorations (e.g., a titanium bar and a PMMA or composite arch) that are strong, beautiful, and serviceable long-term.
Power and Precision Where It Counts: A New Era for Abutment Design
When you're designing a full arch, you're not just designing one abutment—you're designing four, six, or more. Efficiency and consistency are paramount. The Chemnitz release completely revamps the abutment design experience.
The new Abutment Top Design tools provide smarter initial proposals that get you closer to the final shape, instantly. The best part? You can now save your own custom abutment styles. For a high-production workflow like InstaRisa, this is critical. It allows your lab to codify its successful design principles—your "digital DNA"—for ideal tissue support and emergence profiles. You can create a library of your signature abutment designs and apply them with perfect consistency across every single case, ensuring every patient benefits from your team's accumulated expertise.
A Smarter, Faster Foundation for Every Arch
Beyond these headline features, Chemnitz 3.3 is packed with enhancements that make every step of a full-arch case faster and more intuitive:
-
Interactive Symmetric Tooth Design: Effortlessly create perfectly symmetric anterior setups for bridges and dentures, with real-time morphing that maintains harmony and natural aesthetics.
-
New, Modern Tooth Libraries: The addition of "Inspira C" and "Tribos NAT" libraries provides fresh, modern morphologies perfect for creating beautiful, lifelike full-arch prosthetics.
-
Integrated Denture Bite Templates: For edentulous cases, you can now design a bite template directly within the full denture workflow, ensuring you capture the correct vertical dimension and bite relationship before you start the final design.
What This Means for Your Team
The exocad 3.3 Chemnitz release is more than an update; it's a strategic upgrade. It provides the powerful tools to execute complex cases with incredible efficiency. A workflow like InstaRisa provides the philosophy and process to ensure those tools are used to their maximum, patient-centric potential.
The combination is undeniable: a reduction in prototypes, a dramatic decrease in chairside adjustments, and a streamlined, predictable path from initial consultation to the delivery of a stunning, facially-integrated final restoration. It's time to elevate your full-arch game.