Case Studies LightForce Orthodontics Brings to Market Fully-Custom Dental Braces

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	LightForce Orthodontics Brings to Market Fully-Custom Dental Braces

LightForce Orthodontics Brings to Market Fully-Custom Dental Braces

Technology Category	Analytics & Modeling - Generative AI Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration Functional Applications - Product Lifecycle Management Systems (PLM)
Applicable Industries	Healthcare & Hospitals
Applicable Functions	Product Research & Development Quality Assurance
Services	Software Design & Engineering Services System Integration Training
Challenge	LightForce Orthodontics faced a significant challenge in scaling their operations due to the time-consuming design process of their patient-specific dental braces. The legacy CAD software they were using lacked the ability to track the progress of the multistep design workflow, making it difficult to repeat workflows quickly and error-free. This bottleneck in the design step was preventing LightForce from expanding their business and meeting the growing demand for their custom dental devices. Additionally, training new employees on the advanced software was proving to be tricky, tedious, and time-consuming, further hindering their ability to scale efficiently. Read More
About Customer	LightForce Orthodontics is a design and manufacturing company specializing in dental devices, founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2015. Their mission is to revolutionize dentistry with their patient-specific braces. LightForce offers an online portal where orthodontists can upload 3D scans of patients’ mouths to determine the position of each individual bracket of a wire brace. The company generates custom designs for the brackets and installation trays, 3D prints all components, and ships them to clinics for application. LightForce aims to improve patient outcomes, reduce installation time, and increase comfort with their innovative dental solutions. Read More
Solution	To address the design bottleneck, LightForce Orthodontics leveraged the design automation capabilities of nTopology. By shifting from their legacy CAD software to nTopology, they gained visibility into each step of the design process, allowing users to repeat workflows quickly and error-free. This transition reduced the manual design time for patient-specific braces from 10 hours to 3 hours. To further reduce design time, LightForce utilized nTopCL, nTopology’s Command Line Interface, to automate the entire design workflow programmatically using scripts, bringing the total design time down to just 10 minutes. Additionally, nTopology’s intuitive and prescriptive nature made it easier to onboard and train new employees, enabling inexperienced team members to swiftly pick up the software and use it to its full potential. The reusable workflows allowed any technician to execute a process designed by an engineer comfortably and error-free. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Generative AI

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Functional Applications - Product Lifecycle Management Systems (PLM)

Applicable Industries

Healthcare & Hospitals

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Quality Assurance

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services

System Integration

Training

Challenge

LightForce Orthodontics faced a significant challenge in scaling their operations due to the time-consuming design process of their patient-specific dental braces. The legacy CAD software they were using lacked the ability to track the progress of the multistep design workflow, making it difficult to repeat workflows quickly and error-free. This bottleneck in the design step was preventing LightForce from expanding their business and meeting the growing demand for their custom dental devices. Additionally, training new employees on the advanced software was proving to be tricky, tedious, and time-consuming, further hindering their ability to scale efficiently.

About Customer

LightForce Orthodontics is a design and manufacturing company specializing in dental devices, founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2015. Their mission is to revolutionize dentistry with their patient-specific braces. LightForce offers an online portal where orthodontists can upload 3D scans of patients’ mouths to determine the position of each individual bracket of a wire brace. The company generates custom designs for the brackets and installation trays, 3D prints all components, and ships them to clinics for application. LightForce aims to improve patient outcomes, reduce installation time, and increase comfort with their innovative dental solutions.

Solution

To address the design bottleneck, LightForce Orthodontics leveraged the design automation capabilities of nTopology. By shifting from their legacy CAD software to nTopology, they gained visibility into each step of the design process, allowing users to repeat workflows quickly and error-free. This transition reduced the manual design time for patient-specific braces from 10 hours to 3 hours. To further reduce design time, LightForce utilized nTopCL, nTopology’s Command Line Interface, to automate the entire design workflow programmatically using scripts, bringing the total design time down to just 10 minutes. Additionally, nTopology’s intuitive and prescriptive nature made it easier to onboard and train new employees, enabling inexperienced team members to swiftly pick up the software and use it to its full potential. The reusable workflows allowed any technician to execute a process designed by an engineer comfortably and error-free.

Impact #1	LightForce Orthodontics significantly reduced the pre-installation time by automating design processes and reusing traceable design workflows.
Impact #2	The company overcame the design bottleneck, allowing them to scale their operations and meet the growing demand for their custom dental devices.
Impact #3	nTopology’s intuitive and prescriptive nature facilitated the swift onboarding and training of new employees, enhancing the overall efficiency of the team.

Impact #1

LightForce Orthodontics significantly reduced the pre-installation time by automating design processes and reusing traceable design workflows.

Impact #2

The company overcame the design bottleneck, allowing them to scale their operations and meet the growing demand for their custom dental devices.

Impact #3

nTopology’s intuitive and prescriptive nature facilitated the swift onboarding and training of new employees, enhancing the overall efficiency of the team.

Benefit #1	Reduced manual design time from 10 hours to 3 hours.
Benefit #2	Further reduced total design time to 10 minutes using automation.
Benefit #3	Achieved 33% faster installation of dental braces.

Benefit #1

Reduced manual design time from 10 hours to 3 hours.

Benefit #2

Further reduced total design time to 10 minutes using automation.

Benefit #3

Achieved 33% faster installation of dental braces.

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Overview

LightForce Orthodontics Brings to Market Fully-Custom Dental Braces

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit