3D Printing for the masses in Dentistry with Sprint Ray’s Dr. Meena Barsoum
Episode Description
In this episode of the Simplified Dentistry Podcast, Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan speaks with Dr. Meena Barsoum, Global Head of Clinical Strategy at SprintRay. Together, they explore how cutting-edge 3D printing technology is making high-quality, in-office restorations more accessible and efficient than ever before. From the evolution of materials to AI-driven design, Dr. Barsoum shares his vision for simplifying dentistry—without sacrificing clinical excellence. Whether you’re a seasoned CAD/CAM user or just getting started with digital workflows, this episode offers practical strategies for enhancing care, saving time, and future-proofing your practice.
Episode Navigation
01:00 – Making 3D printing accessible to all practices 03:00 – Midas printer & AI-powered crown design 05:00 – Chairside manufacturing without expensive software 06:15 – Printing vs. milling: strengths & differences 08:00 – Indirect restorations as alternatives to composites 11:00 – Time, efficiency, and clinical advantages 13:00 – Scanner preferences & ideal new-doc setups 16:00 – Material recommendations: printed vs. milled 18:00 – Strength, wear, and biomimetic benefits 21:00 – Transition from CDOCS to SprintRay 25:00 – Building SprintRay University & future education goals
Key Takeaways
Democratizing Digital Dentistry
- SprintRay’s ecosystem enables chairside 3D printing for any scanner that exports STL files
- The Midas printer allows single-unit restorations in 8 minutes—no milling required
- AI-powered Studio software designs crowns in the cloud, no license or installation needed
Clinical Efficiency & Simplicity
- Printed indirect restorations offer a predictable, durable alternative to direct composites
- 3D printing allows more conservative preps with biomimetic wear characteristics
- Digitally fabricated restorations reduce operator variability and streamline quadrant dentistry
For New & Mid-Career Dentists
- New docs can start affordably with a scanner + SprintRay for full-service printing
- Milled zirconia remains ideal for bruxism; printed materials are optimal for aesthetics, anteriors, and quadrants
- Digital tools allow for same-day delivery of full-arch prosthetics, splints, and surgical guides
Meet Our Guest
Dr. Meena Barsoum Global Head of Clinical Strategy at SprintRay and former CDOCS faculty member. A leader in digital dentistry and clinical education, Dr. Barsoum has practiced for over 15 years, specializing in CAD/CAM workflows, 3D printing, and clinical efficiency. His current mission: make cutting-edge dentistry accessible for every practice—regardless of size or budget.
Featured Discussion Topics
3D printing vs. milling
Printed crown materials & wear resistance
AI-driven design software
Biomimetic dentistry
Efficient quadrant workflows
Digital tools for new dentists
SprintRay University & clinician training
Evolving beyond traditional composites
Future of digital restorations
Connect With Simplify Dentistry
🌐 Website: simplifydds.com 👥 Facebook Group: Simplify Dentistry Community
Topics: 3D printing, CAD/CAM dentistry, AI crown design, digital workflows, in-office restorations, SprintRay, dental innovation, indirect restorations, biomimetic materials, simplifying dentistry
Transcript
00:00:01:24 – 00:00:13:22
Intro
Welcome to the Simplify Dentistry Podcast. Join us as we discuss clinical, operational and financial aspects of your practice. Hope you enjoy life and dare to simplify dentistry.
00:00:13:25 – 00:00:36:03
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
Hey, welcome back to the Simplify Dentistry Podcast. I’m Doctor Mustafa Shah-Khan and we are fortunate to have Doctor Meena Barsoum on with us today. We had Doctor Barsoum on several weeks ago, but unfortunately a little delay in us recording and getting the podcast out and Doctor Barsoum is now the global head of clinical strategy for sprint. Right.
00:00:36:06 – 00:00:39:26
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
When I grow up, I want to be the global head of something simple.
00:00:39:28 – 00:00:45:04
Dr. Meena Barsoum
I know it’s a it’s a fancy title without a lot of responsibility. So, we’ll see. We’ll see where it goes.
00:00:45:04 – 00:00:58:09
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
Yeah. Well, thank you for joining us again, Meena. You know, and for, for some of our listeners, kind of touch on know, let’s touch on sprint rate, what sprint rate is and and let’s kind of get from there.
00:00:58:12 – 00:01:24:07
Dr. Meena Barsoum
Yeah. No. So I’m excited to be part of this organization. Sprint has actually been around for ten years. Just celebrated their ten year anniversary. Just a few months ago. And, you know, we’re kind of focusing on today is bringing 3D printing to the masses. Our goal is been raised to make sure that our patients, all our practices are getting, you know, quality restorations that are attainable to any practice that has any scanner.
00:01:24:08 – 00:01:36:03
Dr. Meena Barsoum
So that’s really what, got me super excited about this opportunity is seeing what what the company was building behind the scenes and getting a little insight to that. And it really helped me make this decision to join the organization. Yeah.
00:01:36:03 – 00:01:47:11
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
So so when you say bringing, you know, high quality printing, 3D printing to the masses, kind of what is, what’s kind of the big driver? How do you do that? How do you accomplish that?
00:01:47:14 – 00:02:08:21
Dr. Meena Barsoum
Yeah. It’s, so when I was at Chicago mid-winter this year, just a few months ago, I had the opportunity to actually attend midwinter as an attendee this year, which was the first time I’ve had that opportunity to do it a long time without being, you know, title responsibility. So I was walking around the show floor and I got to see the team over at sprint Ray, and they introduced me to the Midas, printer.
00:02:08:23 – 00:02:33:05
Dr. Meena Barsoum
So if you haven’t heard of the Midas, it’s a very small printer. It’s about this big. And what that printer does, it’s a digital press, so it’s meant to to print single units and individual restorations directly in a very small, compact unit. Now, the beauty of that product is we can bring in different resin profiles. We’re building different resins for higher strength, higher toughness, higher surface toughness.
00:02:33:08 – 00:02:52:08
Dr. Meena Barsoum
But you can now print in about eight minutes a single crown, a couple of inlays or on layers. And you can put three different capsules in the printer and print them at the same time. So I can go under one single crown in eight minutes or six crowns in eight minutes. Because the technology behind printing is it’s printing one layer at a time, so doesn’t matter how many units are on it.
00:02:52:08 – 00:03:15:05
Dr. Meena Barsoum
So, it’s really, created an opportunity to make, you know, direct restorations like inlays and on laser possibility, and obviously full coverage crowns and veneers. But when I say bring it to the masses, you don’t need to have a specific scanner or a specific software to be able to use, the spring ecosystem. It’s any standard on the market that can, you know, export an STL.
00:03:15:07 – 00:03:33:08
Dr. Meena Barsoum
And we have our own cloud design software that allows us to design these single units right in the cloud. So there’s no expensive software to buy or licensing or anything like that. So when I say masses, that’s what I mean is 51% of the market right now is an intra oral scanner. A very small percentage of those are actually milling or manufacturing in the office.
00:03:33:08 – 00:03:38:04
Dr. Meena Barsoum
The rest of them are just an opportunity to be able to bring chair side manufacturing to those practice. So if I.
00:03:38:04 – 00:03:45:10
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
Were, if I got a minus, yeah, I have an I tariff for my Invisalign stuff, I can, I can just print off of that design.
00:03:45:10 – 00:04:09:24
Dr. Meena Barsoum
And yeah. And it exactly. I was actually a great, partner for this because Itero they are now including the Itero design suite as part of your, your online access. So I design suite for those who don’t know, it’s a, basically exo CAD, but in a very light version. So it’s meant for single units, quadrants, bridges, splines and things like that and models.
00:04:09:26 – 00:04:26:15
Dr. Meena Barsoum
So with that software, you’re able to design anything that you scan on your itero and you can take that design and drag it right into the, spirit ray cloud rework cloud software. You bring the style of your design in it, automatically positions it on the build platform, and it sends it to the minus to print.
00:04:26:15 – 00:04:36:01
Dr. Meena Barsoum
So it’s all done automatically in the background. But you can use your itero. You can use your Prime scan, to upload scans and design. So it’s really completely scanner agnostic.
00:04:36:01 – 00:04:42:13
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
You typically have to have some type of design software. Obviously. You know, spring Ray doesn’t happen on software. I don’t do that.
00:04:42:19 – 00:05:02:03
Dr. Meena Barsoum
Yeah we do. Yeah. And that so that that’s what really got me excited is there’s, we call it studio AI. So it’s still in beta, but it’s essentially AI designed for single units for crowns and lays on lays. And veneers are coming. So what does that mean? I can bring the scan in so it’s an STL of an upper jaw and a lower jaw.
00:05:02:10 – 00:05:22:22
Dr. Meena Barsoum
And I just drag it right into the studio software and I walk away. And in a couple minutes it automatically identifies which tooth needs the restoration. What kind of restoration it is. It automatically margin and it gives you an initial proposal. And then from there you have simple tools like, you know, a morph tool and a smooth and an ad tool to customize the design if you want.
00:05:22:25 – 00:05:40:10
Dr. Meena Barsoum
And when you’re done, you click a button and it goes right into the printing software, all in the cloud. So right on a web browser, there’s no software needed. Right now it’s, it’s only for single units. But our, AI team is building the quadrant software as we speak. So maybe by the time this launches, we’ll have the quadrant software.
00:05:40:10 – 00:05:46:09
Dr. Meena Barsoum
Who knows? But that’s definitely something that is being worked on in the background. So you don’t need to buy expensive software if you don’t want to.
00:05:46:09 – 00:06:04:04
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
With, you, when you say, it’s printed, you know, you and I grew up in the, the world where everybody would ask us if, if the serac was printing and we’re like, no, it’s a milling unit. And, and you get super strength with milling versus printing because you’re only as strong as the weakest layer.
00:06:04:06 – 00:06:08:01
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
Is that a misnomer or how would you approach something out?
00:06:08:03 – 00:06:26:24
Dr. Meena Barsoum
You know, the way I look at it today, is the Midas replacing milling? No, I don’t think so. I think it’s a great complement to, the chair side milling solution for those practices that have chair side milling. Adding a midas is a compliment because it allows you to, now work on quadrants more efficiently. What does that mean?
00:06:26:27 – 00:06:42:14
Dr. Meena Barsoum
You know, do you love doing direct composites? You know, putting a matrix bandaid in a wedge in a in a ring and all that stuff and doing direct composites. It’s in my opinion, and dentistry is probably one of the biggest issues we have currently is direct composites not lasting as long as, you know, let’s say an amalgam would have lasted in the mouth.
00:06:42:14 – 00:07:09:02
Dr. Meena Barsoum
So we’re getting recurrent decay. We’re using these bulk fill materials that maybe are being misused and not curing fully. And, you know, so those direct resins that are not enjoyable for us as dentures to do, they’re they don’t last as long in the mouth. I look at that as being a great opportunity for, hey, let’s bring in a midas and let’s add this indirect restoration option for a, you know, high strength material that has a 60% ceramic, component in it.
00:07:09:05 – 00:07:25:04
Dr. Meena Barsoum
And instead of trying to mill that restoration and as you know, milling is a great solution. But for tiny little restorations, it’s not always feasible because you have to deal with the tool size and the angles of the tools, and sometimes you get over milling and you may not get the smooth surface there because the tools are certain size.
00:07:25:07 – 00:07:42:23
Dr. Meena Barsoum
The sprue ends up on a contact almost always. And now we compare that to a printing solution, where now I can put the supports on the occlusal. I have a lot more detail in anatomy because it’s an additive process, and I can do a full quadrant in eight minutes versus, you know, 4 or 5 individual blocks that I’m milling out.
00:07:42:23 – 00:08:02:07
Dr. Meena Barsoum
Now. You have a solution that you can bring in and replace all those direct resins with indirect dentistry, which, as we know, is going to be a better fit. That’s going to last longer. It’s pre, polymerize before it goes in the mouth. So all the benefits of indirect dentistry and then certainly as a dentist you can charge a little bit more for that because it’s a better materials a ceramic material versus a composite.
00:08:02:07 – 00:08:20:02
Dr. Meena Barsoum
So that to me is the big win for this. And how do I couple that with serif? I still use my work every day. I still mill my zirconia crowns every day. For but as I see the materials coming and, you know, there’s new materials coming out later this year that are going to be 70% filled with ceramic, with better surface toughness and better wear resistance.
00:08:20:02 – 00:08:32:21
Dr. Meena Barsoum
And, you know, that’s just today. Imagine 2 or 3 years from now as our biomaterials innovations keep improving, we’re going to have the zirconia replacement as a printable solution. And it’s going to be in the Midas. And it’s going to be available for anyone with a scan next year.
00:08:32:23 – 00:08:50:22
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
Yeah. So interesting you say that, you know, I remember going to a, you know, a doctor, doctor, whatever it was, way back when. And, one of the speakers was Pascal Maniac. Gal talked about, you know, he thought Lava Ultimate was the greatest material ever. That’s something he uses every day in his life.
00:08:50:22 – 00:09:10:23
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
Ultimate. But he talked about how you delivered it as you would take that indirect restoration and you would, heat composite and you would force it into place and you would bond with a microfilm composite or. Yeah, I bet I believe there’s a microphone. Has it. Yeah. It was because the mitral valve composite would fill that space.
00:09:10:26 – 00:09:15:27
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
What are you doing to put in, printed restorations that are trying to replace the direct clog?
00:09:16:00 – 00:09:34:04
Dr. Meena Barsoum
Yes. So. So when you think about the milled restorations there was over milling, there was going to be gaps in there that he was trying to fill with that, with that microfilm composite or the printed restoration. There is no over milling there. It’s a true representation of the intact little surface and of the fit. So we’re bonding. The men were bonding them in with a, resin cement.
00:09:34:04 – 00:09:50:09
Dr. Meena Barsoum
So we use very long to stick, as our resin cement, you know, just like it was for a glass ceramic. Now, the difference is this material doesn’t need hydrofluoric acid. Ouch. It doesn’t need, the handling that. Let’s say you, Max, what you need, you sandblasted, you try it in, use a cleaning, product like katana cleaner.
00:09:50:09 – 00:10:14:06
Dr. Meena Barsoum
I will clean, and then you bond it in. So we use a full bonded protocol, and once it’s bonded in, it’s in. It’s, it’s part of the tooth at this point. And now we’re getting into that whole biomimetic, philosophy of putting materials in that mimics, flexural strength and the, the way that a natural tooth flexes and moves and wears, are these printed materials right now?
00:10:14:06 – 00:10:23:06
Dr. Meena Barsoum
It’s not harder than the enamel. It’s not harder than the opposing dentition. It’s going to wear evenly with the adjacent teeth on the opposing vegetation. And that’s that’s the idea of a whole biomimetic loss.
00:10:23:07 – 00:10:33:26
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
What do you think about it? You know, I mean, I’ve had several of these in the last few weeks where it’s a quadrant, mod modern demo, that’s, you know, and nobody wants to do that.
00:10:33:28 – 00:10:37:05
Dr. Meena Barsoum
Yeah. That’s that’s why we have associates, right? We, we take those with.
00:10:37:07 – 00:10:51:01
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
Yeah. That’s what I need is an associate. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, you, you also have that and then you also, I don’t care how weak you are, I think I’m a pretty good clinician, but you go back at some point in time and you’re like, cat that just there’s a little bit of an overhang here, not even an overhang.
00:10:51:01 – 00:11:11:20
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
But yeah there’s a lip on there. There’s this, there’s that, you know, I mean it could be better I guess. But you know, how do you finish this in the same manner? I think this is a great solution. And, does it do any more time, like if you were an allocated a quadrant of composite versus a quadrant of this, what what would you return?
00:11:11:23 – 00:11:27:19
Dr. Meena Barsoum
Here’s how I’ll position and I’ll tell you like I and like I said, I think this is endemic in dentistry where these direction problems aren’t lasting as long as they should. And, you know, I look at my schedule and our software codes, fillings in a blue color. So if I see blue, blue, blue I call it the blue screen of death.
00:11:27:21 – 00:11:42:24
Dr. Meena Barsoum
I’m angry. I don’t want to see those patients because they’re direct fillings. And it’s it’s not ideal. And nothing is more humbling than putting these wedges in and getting a contact and and pulling the band out. And now it’s open or you have beautiful marginal ridges. Then you have them bite down. You got to grind it all away.
00:11:42:24 – 00:12:02:02
Dr. Meena Barsoum
And now it looks terrible. So those are things that I don’t enjoy. So when we look at time for this, there’s two there’s two amounts of time that we have to factor in. My time individually is the is the dentist and then the, the actual chair time. So it’s actually less time for me is the dentist because I prep skin and I walk away.
00:12:02:04 – 00:12:18:15
Dr. Meena Barsoum
And the next time I’m back, I’m bonding them out and I try to bond them in all at the same time so I don’t have to deal with, you know, anything binding or, you know, you know, one contact getting too heavy or too light. So I put in all the restorations we bond them in at the same time, clean up the excess, and then and then they’re on their way.
00:12:18:15 – 00:12:38:16
Dr. Meena Barsoum
So it may take a little bit longer, because now instead of putting in the, direct composites and moving one tooth to the next, it’s going to take the eight minutes to print them, another ten minutes to, to post-process it. So is that worth it for me? In my opinion, yes, because I could be in another opportunity doing something else so I could go do my hygiene exams, or I can be more productive somewhere else.
00:12:38:16 – 00:12:57:03
Dr. Meena Barsoum
So, to me, it’s it’s the cost benefit of. Yes, you’re adding about 20 minutes to the appointment, but you’re getting a better restoration that you can charge more for because it’s a premium restoration. You’re doing good dentistry, and I don’t I don’t have to worry about looking at those X-rays, like you said, in six months and, you know, hating myself and wanting to hang up the handpiece.
00:12:57:03 – 00:13:06:11
Dr. Meena Barsoum
And that’s all we do is dentistry. Just look at our dentistry and we we own it like we make it like it’s our fault. And then they solve the patient’s tooth. We do the best we can in a wet, dark environment.
00:13:06:11 – 00:13:22:06
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
Yeah. That’s absolutely, you know, kind of, in your practice, more, what what’s what’s the scanner of choice? Yeah. You have your prime scan, you have your, you know, your two or whatever it is. What what what what do you pick up?
00:13:22:08 – 00:13:37:16
Dr. Meena Barsoum
Yeah, it’s, it’s a good question, because I have. I’m fortunate. I have multiple scanners. I have a private scan on the cart and the prime scan left off. I private scan to. And I have the new eyecare Illumina. So we have a lot of scans are all right. Carol lives on the hygiene side, but I’ve started stealing it a little bit.
00:13:37:19 – 00:13:55:13
Dr. Meena Barsoum
Restorative lead, because it does scan really nicely. And I like having that direct, you know, entry into Exo CAD where I can design the case right away. But primarily I’m still using my brain scan to. I’m scanning everything and prime scan to. I’m exporting the case to exo CAD, which is my design software of choice today.
00:13:55:16 – 00:14:14:04
Dr. Meena Barsoum
And then I design it next, okay. Because that comes right from DDS core. So it’s built in right into the workflow. I design the case next okay. And then it’s my choice where I manufactured I can send it to my prime now or I can send it to my sprint ray, products in my Midas. So that gives me total freedom and flexibility to use any manufacturing device I want.
00:14:14:05 – 00:14:14:19
Dr. Meena Barsoum
Sure.
00:14:14:21 – 00:14:27:18
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
So you’re you’re a new doc coming out. Well, what’s what’s your setup? You know, you’re, you know, you have some money but not a ton. So let’s let’s say you’re talking about the five year doc. You know what? What are you gonna do?
00:14:27:20 – 00:14:43:07
Dr. Meena Barsoum
This is, this is a heavy question, and the reason I say that is it really depends on what you see yourself doing. Because we make investments today with the goal of building something for tomorrow. And that’s the beauty we have today in digital technology. When I, when I got in the circuit was you got to buy a full system.
00:14:43:07 – 00:15:01:25
Dr. Meena Barsoum
There is no like buy a scanner and then figure it out. There was no printing, there was no real dye. Whereas today you have a big opportunity with with digital and freshening and honestly pick your scanner. I think, the trio is an excellent, you know, platform for scanning, that new shining elite scanner that are all scan is like super nice.
00:15:01:25 – 00:15:21:12
Dr. Meena Barsoum
It’s very tiny, and it scans really well. Prime scan shoe is certainly a great option if you’re getting into scanning or nitro. So I think you’re a new doctor. You’re getting into this. You want to just scan only, you know, find the ecosystem that makes the most sense for you. Whether you like the align solution or whether you want to just be totally free and open, or if you like these core by the trend scan.
00:15:21:12 – 00:15:50:14
Dr. Meena Barsoum
So those are those are great options. I think from there then you have to decide what you want to make next. And if I’m a new doctor of limited funds, I’m looking at sprint very, very heavily because with sprint Ray, you can not only manufacture your indirect restorations, but you can throw in a full service printer that can now let you make your retainers and your night guards and models and surgical guides and all on arches and all the different, you know, manufacturing end points that you can get from a full solution.
00:15:50:16 – 00:15:58:08
Dr. Meena Barsoum
So for me, as a new doctor, I’m going to look at that, because that’s a significant cost savings in terms of entry points. But you’re still getting premium outputs.
00:15:58:10 – 00:16:03:21
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
And sprint Ray, do you guys sell direct or is it still through a distributor?
00:16:03:24 – 00:16:19:12
Dr. Meena Barsoum
It’s both. I mean, we primarily sell to our dealer partners because they, you know, have relationships with the doctors. They can provide support just like we do. But you know, all the dealers carry the sprint Ray, portfolio, and we also sell directly as well. Yeah.
00:16:19:14 – 00:16:35:05
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
Kind of something I like to talk about is materials. You know, we all try to figure out what what are the best materials? What’s the greatest material? You know, zirconia is the material of choice right now. Well, full coverage, single units. What’s what’s your material of choice right now? And why?
00:16:35:08 – 00:16:55:10
Dr. Meena Barsoum
Full coverage, single units. Today I have milling. I’m still milling. Zirconia. Katana. One speed is my go to. From a, milling perspective. I’m bringing it in, and I’m, you know, milling that in five minutes, I’m sintering it in nine minutes, and I’m delivering it. Now, the reason I had to do that is because I have equipment that allows me to do it.
00:16:55:10 – 00:17:18:05
Dr. Meena Barsoum
I have two prior mills, and we can manufacture that pretty quickly. Now, when we start thinking about toughness and strength, we just have to be careful comparing 3D printed, resin materials that have, ceramic components to a milled glass. Ceramic is a glass ceramic. It’s a matrix that can still the crystal and structure can still crack in those cracks can propagate.
00:17:18:06 – 00:17:34:16
Dr. Meena Barsoum
We have to treat it a certain way. So those materials need a lot more fracture toughness so that they can handle those crack propagations and how it’s going to fail. If it does fail on the mouth. When you look at a 3D printed material, it’s a resin base. And cracks don’t propagate in a resin base. So it’s treated differently.
00:17:34:16 – 00:17:54:10
Dr. Meena Barsoum
So it’s not like these materials break in the mouth. They tend to wear in the mouth. So what we’ve seen in the past, some of the previous generation of these materials, they just wear a little bit quicker than we want. The newer materials have a much more wear assistance and they’re able to tolerate, that amount of function and load in the mouth, as we’ve seen kind of in vitro.
00:17:54:10 – 00:18:14:07
Dr. Meena Barsoum
Now we’re testing this obviously in the mouth, and we’re doing some long term studies to to validate that. But what I’m seeing today is these printed materials function a lot like enamel. And that is a good thing for me. You know, if enamel is going to wear, I want the materials to wear with it. But I’m still, you know, kind of linked to what I’ve been doing for 15 years and what’s worked.
00:18:14:09 – 00:18:30:09
Dr. Meena Barsoum
But I’m not open to I’m not opposed to trying the new materials, and I am doing a more for B molars forward. My my answer static cases. I’m printing those now. So it’s changed a little bit of how I practice. But it’s a number two on, bruxism. I’m still putting zirconia and I think that’s okay.
00:18:30:11 – 00:18:49:09
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
So there was a, Well, I’m ask you a couple questions, but one, when you talk about glass ceramics having cracks but propagate, the the big thing they talked about with zirconia is zirconia. They, the fractures are supposed to be self curing. Is that not correct?
00:18:49:11 – 00:19:06:24
Dr. Meena Barsoum
To an extent. I mean, I think, you know, salt curing on a zirconia. I mean, you’re centering the material, but if you come in and adjust it aggressively without cooling and you overheat it, it’s going to facet, and if you under prepare and you leave it thin, I mean, still 6/10 of a millimeter is still very thin, but if you’re at five times or four times, that could crack.
00:19:06:26 – 00:19:26:13
Dr. Meena Barsoum
I mean, I’ve seen zirconia fracture and I’ve seen them break, and it’s not it’s not in, you know, immune products that can survive any environment. I think all those glass ceramics can break. Now, can you see a printed material break? I’m sure, but you’re more likely going to see it wear down or potentially deboned if it wasn’t bonded improperly versus a crack.
00:19:26:13 – 00:19:37:08
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
And do you feel like the advances in printed materials are there’s more. There’s more advances in the resin ceramics than the last ceramics or or what are you saying?
00:19:37:11 – 00:19:57:26
Dr. Meena Barsoum
It’s hard for me to say, because I don’t know what a lot of the manufacturer doing behind the scenes with the glass, ceramics. What I can tell you, my role now involves me dealing and kind of coordinating with the universities and a lot of our clinical studies and our, lab studies. And what I see is every university is clamoring to get their hands on our materials, because they want to test it.
00:19:57:26 – 00:20:11:17
Dr. Meena Barsoum
So there’s a lot of excitement behind it because it’s, you know, it’s a sexy new material, and they want to be the first to, you know, put out a study and validate it or prove that it’s not going to work. And everybody wants to get their opinion on it. And I think to me that that says something.
00:20:11:17 – 00:20:22:22
Dr. Meena Barsoum
It says that the market wants something like this. And we’re hoping that, that it’s going to work. And I, I’ve seen a lot of the preliminary data, and it’s been a work that I feel really confident about, that I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.
00:20:22:29 – 00:20:31:23
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
So the printed materials and with, what zirconia has as iMacs is that out of the repertoire now for, you.
00:20:31:25 – 00:20:54:10
Dr. Meena Barsoum
Know, iMacs are still an option. This this question actually came up, earlier today, I was doing a panel with some of the the Patterson folks here at their national sales meeting, and they’re asking me about my veneer and interior choice selection, for patients. And I tell them I can do a no prep veneer where I’m not going to remove any two structure to move very little tree structure.
00:20:54:12 – 00:21:08:07
Dr. Meena Barsoum
But for me to do that, I have to print the material that has to be very thin and has to have these settings. So I give them that option, and I say, you know, these materials have been out for 4 or 5 years. There’s a lot of clinical data on it. So I feel confident is going to survive.
00:21:08:07 – 00:21:22:18
Dr. Meena Barsoum
But you’d be, you know, kind of going down that road with us. And if something were to happen, obviously we’d stand behind it. And then I give them option two. I say we can go the glass around with like the iMac. That’s my that’s my primary glass ceramic. Much more longevity. We got 15 years of data showing that it’s going to survive.
00:21:22:18 – 00:21:37:07
Dr. Meena Barsoum
I have tons of cases where I know it’s going to survive, but I have to prepare your tooth more, meaning I have to shave a little bit more tooth structure to get the thickness I need for it. And then I let the patient decide, and from there they let me know which option they want. There’s no price difference in either one.
00:21:37:10 – 00:21:56:16
Dr. Meena Barsoum
But I’m much more comfortable at this stage in my career to do these know prep restorations, because if something happens, I know I can repair it or I can stand behind it and I can replace it for the patient and just reprint something else. If I needed to. And let’s say these survive 7 or 10 years, in 7 or 10 years, we’re going to have better printed materials.
00:21:56:19 – 00:22:04:01
Dr. Meena Barsoum
And I didn’t take away their enamel and their two structure today, where I wouldn’t be able to replace it again in the future. So that’s kind of my mindset today was how I’m handling this.
00:22:04:01 – 00:22:25:29
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
Yeah. So it’s kind of the the convert conservative philosophy. And if you do have failure, you know, ultimately you have kind of left yourself in a position where you can make a new restoration and it’s not so detrimental or not they can do it structurally. You know, I’ve lost actually. So I think that. Exactly. Them well, what else was I going to ask you?
00:22:26:02 – 00:22:43:08
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
You know what? What really kind of took you away from the the sea docs world? I mean, obviously you were in the cakes world for a long time. Just the opportunity here or, are you wanting to advance another on another type of technology and.
00:22:43:10 – 00:23:05:03
Dr. Meena Barsoum
You know, I, as you know, I’ve been I’ve been a diehard supporter of Densify Sirona my whole career. 15 years of dental practice. It’s all I’ve used, all I’ve known. I’m still a believer in the workflows there. I just, you know, the 3D printing world to me was moving at such a fast pace that I felt like, you know, the printer that I had prior to this just wasn’t meeting some of the needs and expectations that I had.
00:23:05:03 – 00:23:24:11
Dr. Meena Barsoum
So I actually purchased, the sprint Ray Pro, too, like last year before I even, you know, took this role because it was giving me an opportunity to do more things with, printing in the practice speed, efficiency indications. I do a lot of all on dentistry, and I’m able to print a full arch, you know, within 20 minutes.
00:23:24:13 – 00:23:50:02
Dr. Meena Barsoum
And I can deliver that the day of surgery, and no one else can give me that option. So that was kind of my primary move. And, you know, when I met with the leadership at sprint, Ray, I was able to, you know, kind of see a little bit behind the curtain in terms of what’s coming. And I felt excited when I felt like this was, you know, I hate to put it this way, but the Sirona of the late 2000, where they were just the constant leader and the innovator and bringing in new indications and workflows and it’s been great, reminded me of that.
00:23:50:02 – 00:24:06:20
Dr. Meena Barsoum
And it got me excited to, you know, had this opportunity. And you come in and, you know, be involved in a company that is taking the world by storm and really, you know, taking over digital dentistry. And it got me excited. So, you know, the cdots thing, it was it was a little unfortunate for me. I mean, I never intended to just leave like this.
00:24:06:20 – 00:24:30:02
Dr. Meena Barsoum
I, you know, there’s courses I teach there that I’m the only one that teaches. And, my plan was the leadership. There was always to remain through the end of the year and continue teaching those courses. And, you know, see docs and then Spicer on our, you know, very codependent on each other. And I think there was, little concern on the clock side with me being involved with a competitor that I could impact the relationship with, with that Spicer owner.
00:24:30:02 – 00:24:46:19
Dr. Meena Barsoum
So I just wasn’t, wasn’t welcome back, basically. And, it’s a little sad to hear, but, you know, I put 12 years of my life in there and, you know, all of the weekends and hours of travel and teaching and educating and, you know, it was nice to hear from old students kind of thanking me for what I taught them.
00:24:46:19 – 00:25:03:19
Dr. Meena Barsoum
And, you know, but, you know, we all move on and everybody’s got different priorities and needs. And now my focus is is on sprint race. And, you know, maybe I can go back and partner with spear on something in the future. But, you know, unfortunately Crocs is now in my, in my history. So we’re we’re moving up, you know, I.
00:25:03:19 – 00:25:19:10
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
Mean, and I’m sure it was a great time and we we all know that, that was very impactful for all of us. I, I took some of your courses, and it was great. Yeah. I’m looking forward to seeing kind of what the spread ray aspect has because, you know, frankly, I never really looked at it until you took the role.
00:25:19:12 – 00:25:33:15
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
And now everything gearing that we kind of it motivates me. I mean, it it excites me about things that I can do to enhance my practice, enhance my, you know, patient experience and deliver the dentistry that we all want to do.
00:25:33:17 – 00:25:51:14
Dr. Meena Barsoum
You know, my my first trip to LA, last month after I started with the company, I was able to see, our training facility in LA Sprint, right. University. And as an educator, you’re used to kind of certain things in terms of a lab set up with equipment and laptops and screens, and I was just salivating what they had there.
00:25:51:14 – 00:26:07:14
Dr. Meena Barsoum
I was like, oh my gosh, this is going to be amazing. So part of my dream there is to build Sprint University to be the premier CAD education in the world. You want to learn what scanner do you have? We have a program for you to teach you how to use software, how to manufacture, how to deliver same day dentistry.
00:26:07:16 – 00:26:26:14
Dr. Meena Barsoum
And that’s my goal there. And we’re going to work with our current partners like Wally Rene at the Mott Institute. They are phenomenal when it comes to, you know, understanding 3D printing. And with manufacturing protocols, we’re, you know, we’re we’re aligned with, t bone and 3D dentists in terms of creating education there. So we have partners that already have systems in there.
00:26:26:14 – 00:26:31:15
Dr. Meena Barsoum
And we want to just get every dentist to know exactly where to go and learn the stuff. And that’s that’s my goal.
00:26:31:17 – 00:26:43:22
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
So when you know, when you get to where you have to build a, a East Coast operation, and you get tired of listening to T bone, you can probably do a slightly used CAD cam dentist like me. Yeah.
00:26:43:24 – 00:26:52:07
Dr. Meena Barsoum
All right. We’re in. Yeah, yeah, you are, you are. First of all, I love it. You’re just not as controversial as T, but. Right. So we’ll have to. We’ll have to see what happens.
00:26:52:08 – 00:27:10:14
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
Or I can get more controversial. You made me say okay. All right. So, you know, kind of what we asked you at last time is, you know, kind of what what would you do to simplify dentistry? And obviously with what you’re doing, I think there there is aspects that are simplified, necessary to make kind of how would you summarize that today?
00:27:10:16 – 00:27:33:06
Dr. Meena Barsoum
Simplifying dentistry to me is finding what is the most complex, procedure that we do that can have the greatest impact for a patient. And how can we, perform that procedure in a predictable way, where somebody with 20 years of experience and somebody with one year of experience can deliver a similar outcome? And to me, when I look at 3D printing, is that option.
00:27:33:08 – 00:27:50:22
Dr. Meena Barsoum
That really does that for me, because if I can prep for an inlay and if somebody right out of school and prep for an inlay, all of the variables have been taken away, because now I’m not having to pack a matrix band in and layer composite and cure in a certain way and avoid the C factor. And think about all the variables that come into play with that.
00:27:50:22 – 00:28:09:19
Dr. Meena Barsoum
And I can just design it and print it. So to me that’s the key is being able to create, a procedural outcome or a restoration that anyone and at any stage in their career can generate with a very similar, kind of quality level. Same thing goes for surgery. I mean, we do all of our implant surgeries are fully guided.
00:28:09:19 – 00:28:29:17
Dr. Meena Barsoum
And, you know, it’s been great. We have, a design service that intake and intraoral scan of of a full arch of implants and all our next procedure, and we can generate a prosthetic for you direct to the multi-unit abutments and right to your printer. And in 25 minutes, you have that prosthetic and you can deliver it. That simplified dentistry.
00:28:29:17 – 00:28:48:21
Dr. Meena Barsoum
That, to me, is way better than putting in temp cylinders and doing a denture conversion with acrylic and the block out with the rubber dam material, and carving it down and being covered in acrylic does like this is simplifying just being able to click a button and generate a precise prosthetic for a full education?
00:28:48:23 – 00:29:00:21
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
Absolutely. Well, thank you again for your time. Yeah, I know you’re you’re all over the place now with me role. Like you said, I might just call myself the global head of simplify dentistry just so I can be the goal.
00:29:00:24 – 00:29:03:03
Dr. Meena Barsoum
That’s it. Done. Simplify dentistry strategy.
00:29:03:09 – 00:29:12:00
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
Right. Well, thank you again. Yeah. We look forward to connecting with you again in the future. And, having you on, some financial podcasts.
00:29:12:03 – 00:29:13:17
Dr. Meena Barsoum
Appreciate it. Thanks a lot of stuff.
00:29:13:19 – 00:29:14:00
Dr. Mustafa Shah-Khan
Thank you.