Dental Prosthetic Services cuts CAM time by 60% with Oqcam’s smart automation

Demand for digital dentistry is not letting up. In fact, the success of one US dental lab indicates it’s booming. 

Dental Prosthetic Services, a family-owned business based in Iowa, has seen their digital work double over the last few years. While the growth was positive, it increased pressure to meet the same turnaround time with higher production.

In the face of a sharp increase in cases and rising competition, the lab turned to Oqcam, a dental lab software designed for workflow automation. After adopting the software, they quickly started reaping the rewards –including a 60% reduction in mill setup time and a 12-18% increase in the number of units per zirconia puck.

The workflow before Oqcam and after it stand in sharp contrast. Cade Norden, who manages the mills, 3D printers, and the staff who run them, has clearly seen the transformation. 

“Setting up pucks used to take 15 to 30 minutes per puck, 10 minutes of that being processing time and then we would also manually manipulate every unit to fit on the puck,” Norden says. “That number has drastically decreased since we’ve switched to Oqcam.”

Much of the time savings come from automation. Before Oqcam, the team had to manually import .STL files, define the type of material, mark the margins, add supports, and select a puck with appropriate height and shade for each individual unit. 

Those headaches are now a thing of the past. “With Oqcam, we don’t have to worry about any of that. It automatically puts the unit on different sizes of pucks for us. It’s a lot less manual labor which also helps us increase accuracy because there are fewer human errors and re-mills,” Norden explains.

Oqcam automatically nests the units, selecting the puck with the appropriate height and shade. The technician only needs to approve the setup before milling begins. This has streamlined the milling workflow at Dental Prosthetic Services.

Achieving scalability through automation

The lab now processes multiple pucks in parallel. Technicians simply move the files onto Oqcam and they all get processed simultaneously. 

“Before, we’d set up each puck one by one, with the software taking 10 minutes to calculate for each. With Oqcam, we can set up 200 units at once, all calculated and ready to go. It’s made our operation much more efficient,” Norden says.

The parallel processing enables the team to achieve higher mill up-time and handle increases in demand, as they get all six mills up and running at once, early in the day. “As we got busier, we needed a faster way to set up pucks. Oqcam helps us do that more quickly, improving overall efficiency,” Norden adds.

Easing the Labor Shortage

An important advantage of Oqcam is that it replaced multiple CAM software tools. “It’s easier to train one person on an AI-driven software rather than multiple pieces of software and have them do each part. AI sets up everything and handles much of the workflow,” Norden says.

Consequently, it is more straightforward and less technical to learn too. “If you have someone new to milling, they don’t have to know where the supports are or how to set up the puck, or what heights or shades to use. Oqcam does most of that so it’s easy to train a new person,” Norden says. 

These time savings, automation and software consolidation have reduced pressure to hire more staff, which has been a longstanding challenge in the dental industry. At Dental Prosthetic Services, that skilled staff can now devote their time to other tasks.

“Our milling technician has cut 60% of his setup time thanks to automation, which frees him up to handle other responsibilities. He’s no longer stuck setting up pucks all day,” Norden says.

Material savings

Oqcam has also helped Dental Prosthetic Services reduce material waste. Oqcam selects the optimal puck height for each unit. Before it was not uncommon to see a crown that could fit on a 14 millimeter-puck milled on a 20 millimeter one. That’s no longer the case. 

Furthermore, Oqcam’s nesting efficiency means more units fit on a single puck. “We’re saving a lot of zirconia because we’re getting more use out of our pucks. Oqcam is more efficient in filling our puck by about 12-18%,” Norden says.

The lab also benefits from Oqcam’s stock management feature, which automatically selects the most suitable puck from available inventory, reducing waste and maximizing material use.

Support a click away

In the past, lack of support with other CAM software often led to frustration at Dental Prosthetic Services. To get help, they would need to call, get put on hold, wait for a callback to ultimately get to a resolution.

Oqcam’s approach is different: easy to reach support and fast response time. Whenever they need help, they’ll just shoot Oqcam’s experts a message in the integrated chat tool. “That’s terrific because support can see exactly what we’re doing and help in real time,” says Norden. 

The lab’s Director of IT, Tim Schmaljohn, echoed this. “There’s no other CAM software that has the support person looking over your shoulder. In fact, it’s usually a poor experience. And in a production environment, where you need to get your cases out the door, having to wait an hour or two for support is a huge problem,” he says.

Additionally, Oqcam’s cloud-based system simplifies the lab’s equipment setup and cuts costs. “We don’t need as many computers, or as expensive ones, which has saved us money,” Schmaljohn notes.

Dental Prosthetic Services has been so satisfied with the results that they have started recommending Oqcam to other labs. For the lab’s President, Kris Van Cleve, the software’s material and labor savings make the investment worthwhile. “Oqcam more than pays for itself in terms of labor and material savings,” she concludes.