Author:

Nir Danai

Cloud Orthodontic Software

Cloud Orthodontic Software 

Planning is an essential part of the orthodontic treatment. Precise and thoughtful prediction of every tooth movement allows to calculate every step of the treatment and anticipate the desired outcome at the end. 

Before the digital era planning was done on analog stone models. Technician had to cut out and separate the teeth that were to be moved, put them on wax and vacuum form every step with little changes of the teeth position. Needless to say, this was a very labor-intensive and time consuming process. Precision was also an issue, as 0.25 mm movements (commonly used nowadays) are almost impossible to perform with naked eye. As a result, adjustments were typically limited to 1mm. To deal with this limitation, different foil thicknesses (soft, medium and hard) were utilized to allow more gradual movements. 

This state of affairs has all changed with the development of orthodontic programs as well as 3D scanners and printers. Although stone models are still being used for complicated aesthetic cases, more and more clinicians and technicians are switching to the digital workflow.

In the orthodontic arena, planning programs are used for multiple applications including design of aligners, indirect bracketing trays, retainers and other devices. In this paper we will focus mostly on aligner planning software. 

Programs for Aligners’ design are all using dental digital models of the teeth, acquired either through desktop scanning of stone models or intra-oral scanning. No wonder that the first orthodontic programs were presented by scanner makers such as 3shape. Today, the most popular dental orthodontic planning programs are; 1) OrthoAnalyzer by 3Shape; 2) OnyxCeph; and 3) Archform 

We are not going to describe in detail the differences between these solutions. Instead we wish to mention things they have in common. With all programs, a purchase is required as well as investing the time to learn how to run them. In addition, all programs require a considerable time investment of the clinician or a dedicated staff member, to plan the treatment on a per case basis. 

While owning and operating your own design software for the purpose of in-office aligner manufacturing is one option, many dentists and orthodontists realize the benefits of outsourcing the design portion to a 3rd party, such as eXceed. Let’s review a few benefits offered by this solution: 

1. eXceed allows to save at least 90 minutes per plan of doctor time, thus enabling our customers to become involved in higher-margins activities.

2. eXceed is heavily involved in aligner production and its proprietary software was developed and is constantly being adjusted to meet the changing needs of our customers. This is a critical point versus the traditional software vendors that are literally disconnected from all production aspects.

3. Generated STL files are marked with case ID and step number

4. All necessary information is included in a comprehensive report including a detailed IPR breakdown, a table with all planned movements, even the sticker info for your aligners packing bags.

5. All eXceed plans are quality-controlled by our team of certified orthodontists.

6. The eXceed platform is cloud-based, which means that access to your plans is available on all platforms and from all places.

7. eXceed is also mobile friendly and can be opened on any portable device.

8. All patient data is stored on our secured servers in Germany 

Getting Started with eXceed is easy: 

1. Go to the “Get Started” Page;

2. Fill out contact and billing details;

3. Service Agreement will be generated and sent via email;

4. Our Support Team will generate the new eXceed account;

5. Schedule a remote session to submit first case