“Our ongoing goal to produce the best fixed restorations continues to be our motivation behind the development of TRUfit. Aware that nothing out there in dental CAD/CAM technology currently hits the mark, we are constantly creating new manufacturing processes and techniques that make the most of the finest technology available.”
Derrick Luksch, CDT | Owner, O’Brien Dental Lab
The fabrication of precise-fitting fixed restorations presents a number of challenges. TRUfit, our proprietary manufacturing system, enables us to meet these challenges. It blends the consistency and precision of CAD/CAM technology with the best aspects of the dental technician’s knowledge, experience, and technical skills.
TRUfit is the result of years of research and development by O’Brien Dental Lab. It consists of five main elements:
- An acquisition unit, used to create digital files of physical casts.
- CAD software, used to virtually design restorations from the digitized models.
- CAM software, used to convert a virtual dental restoration into instructions for producing a physical object.
- Manufacturing equipment, which executes those instructions with the highest degree of accuracy, assuring the most precise fit possible in a wax pattern.
- The dental technician responsible for overseeing each stage of the process and refining all other requirements of a proper wax-up.
The first step in any process utilizing CAD/CAM technology is converting a physical object into a digital file. Since the final result is predicated on the accuracy of this digital file, we utilize proprietary scanners that are the most precise in the dental industry.
Our technicians then virtually design the case using our proprietary software to create a digital file of the final restoration. This file must then be converted into an instruction set that is interpreted by one of our mills.
To accomplish this conversion it was necessary for us to develop our own CAM software code. This code is then sent to an actual industrial mill that then renders the wax pattern using rigorously tested and selected precision cutting tools specific to this task. The result is a wax pattern with a precise fit that is superior to any produced by conventional manufacturing methods or any other commercially available CAD/CAM system. After milling, the wax pattern must then be refined, and it is at this point that the experience and expertise of our technicians take over.
TRUfit is used in the fabrication of most of our cast alloy, PFM and Enamelux restorations and as with all of our processes is applied in accordance with our ISO and DAMAS standards. TRUfit continues to evolve and with periodic modifications we are able to keep improving the quality of our restorations.
