How Carbon is advancing digital workflows in dentistry

There are multiple parts to the AO Suite, and the entire suite is designed to reduce the number of manual steps a technician has to perform. To walk you through a few of them: we have something called Automatic Print Preparation, which initiates the process. It automatically nests the parts to be printed, streamlining preparation. From there, we have a hardware component called the AO Backpack—on display here at our booth—which attaches to the back of our printer. It enables uninterrupted, automated overnight printing, which is a major time-saver. Then there’s the AO Polishing Cassette, which further reduces the technician’s involvement in post-processing. It significantly cuts down the time needed for finishing the case. Altogether, these innovations make up what we believe is the most advanced end-to-end solution available in dental 3D printing today.

Automation is becoming more important in digital dentistry. How do solutions like Automatic Print Preparation and the AO Polishing Cassette help reduce manual work and improve the quality of printed dental parts?
Automatic Print Preparation, which I touched on earlier, eliminates the need for manual nesting, sorting and queuing of print jobs. Similarly, the AO Polishing Cassette reduces the need for technicians to manually polish printed parts—it automates that step entirely.

By integrating these processes into an automated workflow, technicians are freed up to focus on other tasks. It significantly reduces the time typically spent on these two steps and gives laboratories the ability to reallocate their labour, technical expertise and knowledge to higher-value tasks.

Clear aligners are a growing market, and Carbon is launching Lucentra to improve their production. What makes this new system special, and how does it help orthodontic laboratories to create better and more transparent aligners?
Carbon is currently working with a significant number of high-volume aligner manufacturers, and we’ve developed a powerful solution for their needs. Now, we’re in the process of launching a new solution called Lucentra. Lucentra combines hardware, software and materials and is designed specifically to help laboratories produce clearer, more aesthetically pleasing aligners.

What makes Lucentra special is its ability to deliver highly transparent results while also improving workflow efficiency. It’s engineered to meet the unique demands of aligner production at scale, ensuring consistency, speed and precision. We’re really excited about it, and we actually have a sample on display here at the International Dental Show.

This innovation came to life through a truly cross-functional engineering effort. It’s another example of how we’re continuing to innovate and strengthen our commitment to providing our customers with the tools they need to deliver the best possible patient experience.

Carbon works closely with dental laboratories to understand their challenges. What are their biggest ones, and how do Carbon’s new solutions help solve them?
Before I joined Carbon, I had spent many years working in and around the dental laboratory space, so when I took on this role, one of the first things I did was reach out to the laboratories I had long-standing relationships with. I wanted to understand their experience with Carbon—what we were doing well and, more importantly, what they needed from us. I saw it as a key part of my role to identify those needs and help address them.

The overwhelming feedback I received was about labour challenges. Teams were struggling with staffing shortages, and that affected multiple stages of the workflow—including nesting, turnover and polishing.

In response, we got to work developing and delivering the AO Suite. By introducing this suite, we’re helping laboratories reduce risk, increase efficiency and reallocate their labour to higher-value tasks. One great example is the AO Backpack, which has already seen significant adoption. To date, we’ve recorded nearly 30,000 prints—not individual parts but full prints—and we only began delivering units in late 2024. We’re still in the early stages, but it’s clear that this automation suite is going to have a major impact on how our customers work.

Are your customers primarily large laboratories, or can smaller laboratories also benefit from the AO Suite and other solutions you offer?
Historically, Carbon has focused on medium-sized to large laboratories—those that really operate as production centres. We work with smaller laboratories too, especially when their case types, volumes and workflows align well with what Carbon offers.

What’s unique about our approach is how personalised it is. We sit down with each customer and walk through their current process—what they’re doing today, how much labour they’re using, what materials they rely on, how many parts they’re producing—and then we plug that information into a tailored calculator. This helps us clearly demonstrate how Carbon can help them save time, reduce costs and operate more efficiently. If it makes sense for their business, regardless of size, they can absolutely be a Carbon customer.

3D printing and automation are changing the way dental laboratories work. For dental professionals who are new to digital workflows, how do you see these technologies shaping the future, and what advice would you give to laboratories thinking about getting started?
Digital is constantly evolving. Even in just the few years I’ve been with Carbon, I’ve seen how much digital workflows have changed—and I don’t see that slowing down anytime soon. The number of digital applications will continue to grow, and at Carbon, we’re committed to staying ahead of that curve. We want to remain the innovative partner that our customers rely on.

The labour challenges we’ve discussed aren’t going away. They’ll continue to affect laboratories, which is why finding new ways to automate additional parts of the workflow is going to be absolutely essential. For laboratories that are just getting started, my advice is: don’t wait. Start exploring digital now because it’s only going to become more important in the future.

Some people are concerned that automation might lead to job losses. What would you say to them? Is that really the case?
That’s a valid concern, but it’s really about reallocating labour and technical expertise—not replacing it. Automation allows laboratories to shift their skilled team members into roles that are more meaningful. Just because one part of the process is automated doesn’t mean that there’s no role for technicians; it means that they can focus on something else that adds even more value. In the end, I think automation will continue to give laboratories new opportunities—options they didn’t have before and maybe couldn’t even have imagined.

As Carbon expands its impact in Europe, how do you see the adoption of automation and digital dentistry evolving in this market, and what role do you envision Carbon playing in shaping that future?
We’re incredibly excited about the opportunity we have in Europe. When I joined Carbon, one of the first things I was tasked with was figuring out how to replicate the success we’ve had in North America—particularly in the US—and bring that to the European market.

A few approaches had been tried in the past, and while they may not have been perfect, they were valuable because we learned a lot from them. Now, our focus is on a direct sales model, led by a head of sales and supported by a team of highly experienced sales representatives—who are really more like consultants. Their role is to provide in-person support and service while showcasing the value of our technology and innovation.

In North America, we’ve seen an incredibly high adoption rate of automation and digital workflows, and we’re excited to bring that same momentum to Europe. We’re already seeing great potential—especially in countries like Germany, which will be our first major focus. It’s a natural choice given the size and sophistication of the dental laboratory market there. But we’re also looking at the UK, Italy and other regions where we already have some established customers. So, it’s not a brand-new starting point for us—but we believe that the time is right to take things to the next level. Our goal is to continue introducing Carbon’s technology, support adoption through education and help European laboratories unlock new levels of efficiency and growth. We can’t wait to see where it leads.