Ashley Byrne considers the latest existential threat hanging over the heads of the dental technology sector: automation.
Every few years, dentistry gets its latest existential threat: CAD was going to kill the technician, milling was going to commoditise us, printing was going to flood the market with poor quality, cheap dentistry.
And now, apparently, automation has come for the humble crown.
We’re seeing companies proudly announcing ‘fully automated crowns’. Scan in, crown out, minimal human touch. No wax-ups, no artistry, no late nights adjusting margins under a microscope. Just algorithms, machines and throughput.
In fact, some companies have now automated the entire process with zero technician touch. Yep, that includes design, production, stain and glaze. A scan goes in, and a finished, characterised crown comes out the other side without a technician ever lifting a brush.
So what does that mean for us? Is it bad? Disastrous? Or are we looking at this the wrong way?
