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Corporate Profile: OrthoProofUSA Benjamin Lund, Editor, Orthotown Magazine

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As cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) gains more acceptance and use in the field of orthodontics, more and more specialists are realizing the benefits of digital models. Leading the charge in digital model software and technology is OrthoProofUSA out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Orthotown Magazine recently interviewed OrthoProofUSA Operations Manager Anita Petty to learn more about the company's beginnings in producing digital study models, its partnership with one of the leading cone beam computed tomography companies and future developments after the company's recent acquisition by 3M Corporation.
OrthoProofUSA Operations Manager Anita Petty
and Digital Lab Manager Gene Lujan, Jr.

Anita, how would you explain OrthoProofUSA to an orthodontist meeting you for the first time?
Petty: OrthoProofUSA provides high resolution digital study models, which are created in a unique process that does not require a plaster model to be poured up from the impression. Our CBCT scanning process uses the same technology that supports Align Technologies' Invisalign orthodontic solution. OrthoProofUSA's process and Web-based electronic delivery system allow orthodontists to easily access, store, and retrieve digital models, avoiding the costly storage fees required for physical model inventories. Our free 3-D model viewer software, DigiModel, contains a suite of tools that enables the orthodontist to perform treatment planning functions and share data with colleagues.

How did OrthoProofUSA get its start?
Petty: We started the company in November 2005 using Hytec, Inc.'s, FlashCT CBCT technology as the driving force behind our digital study model product. Hytec, Inc., the Los Alamos, New Mexico-based company and expert in the manufacture of industrial CBCT machines, began receiving requests for CBCT scanning services from manufacturers who supplied digital products to the orthodontic and dental industries. Increasing demand for such services led to the establishment of a digital laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where our factory currently operates.

In late 2005, the company launched with its first customer, the University of Nevada at Las Vegas School of Dental Medicine. In March 2006, we produced digital models for Orametrix in support of its SureSmile product. These two customers allowed us to establish ourselves not only in the study model market but also as a provider of digital files to support downstream orthodontic and dental manufacturing processes.

Today, our company has an ever-expanding customer base, which supports individual orthodontic practices, orthodontic service provider companies, universities and teaching institutions, as well as orthodontic product manufacturing companies. Recently, our company was acquired by 3M Corporation, and we look forward to the added business opportunities and synergies this new arrangement will create. This acquisition is the culmination of more than two-and-a-half years of extremely hard work and dogged determination by a small team of individuals who brought cutting edge technological applications to the field of orthodontics.
Can you tell me more about 3M's acquisition of OrthoProofUSA. How did this come about and what does it mean for the future of your company?
Petty: 3M recently announced its intent to acquire IMTEC Corp., our Ardmore, Oklahoma-based parent company, which manufactures dental implants and CBCT scanning equipment for dental and medical radiology. This agreement gives 3M access to fast growing segments in dentistry. OrthoProofUSA, as a digital laboratory providing digital models to orthodontists and digital files for downstream manufacturing processes, was part of the 3M merger.

The OrthoProofUSA team.
We feel the merger of our companies will provide us with an opportunity to expand current sales and marketing efforts and will provide 3M with yet another first-class business division with technologies that will advance future product line development and current product line sales.

What does this acquisition mean for your existing and future customers?
Petty: We believe, just as this merger is good for the company, it is also very good for our customers, current and future. OrthoProofUSA will continue to market its products to current customers with very little change in the near term. The DigiModel viewer software will continue to be supported for current and new customers that desire a low-cost treatment planning and model storage solution. Eventually, we plan to integrate OrthoProofUSA's impression scanning functions into 3M's digital workflow, allowing the company to support a wide range of products marketed by 3M.

Can you please explain OrthoProofUSA's business philosophy?
Petty: Our company strives to provide the best quality, most accurate and most competitively priced products to orthodontic professionals and manufacturers. We strive to be the low-cost leader among digital model providers. We consider our basic digital study model product to be part of an enabling technology that allows practices who are new to digital models the opportunity to get started in "digital" at a relatively low cost and low risk. Our technology and ability to rapidly expand our evolving factory production capabilities makes us uniquely suited to be the "digital lab of the future." That is, we plan to upgrade our digital file manipulation capabilities and processes to accommodate emerging needs as digital technologies improve and advance in the future. Digital study models are but one part of our overall strategy, and we look forward to the challenges involved in providing digital data to support future upgraded suites of orthodontic software tools and products.
FlashCT, used for impression scanning,
can create digital files
of dentition without first having to create a plaster or secondary model from the impressions.

You developed the technology to view teeth in a 3-D model, but you needed technology to take the actual models. How did you get involved with Hytec, Inc., and IMTEC Corporation and their CBCT capabilities?
Petty: Our company's current CEO and founder, Timothy Ott, has been a lifelong friend of Timothy Thompson, the current Chief Operating Officer of IMTEC. Mr. Ott served on the board of directors of Hytec, Inc., prior to its merger with IMTEC in 2006. After the merger, Mr. Ott served on the board of IMTEC. In early 2005, the two Tims collaborated to create a digital laboratory at one of Mr. Ott's office warehouse facilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mr. Thompson and the engineering team at Hytec, Inc., had previously created both the hardware and software systems to facilitate a scanning services business, and Mr. Ott had the available personnel and factory spaces to facilitate such a venture. The rest is history.

Can you explain a little bit about the R&D behind OrthoProofUSA's FlashCT technology? What makes it unique from other 3-D impression systems?
Petty: FlashCT technology originated as a joint venture between Hytec, Inc., and Los Alamos National Laboratories. The first civilian application of this technology was for engineering and industrial purposes such as the identification of cracks in metal welds and the non-destructive imaging and testing of complex machine parts. Through the hard work of Hytec's engineering team, the technology was further developed and refined to accommodate orthodontic applications. The migration of this technology to dental applications resulted, in part, from Align Technologies' request in the late 1990s for Hytec to develop hardware and software to support its Invisalign product.

FlashCT, used for impression scanning, is unique to the orthodontic field in that the technology can create digital files of dentition without first having to create a plaster or secondary model from the impressions. This eliminates the transfer error associated with other technologies, which require physical models to be created from impressions prior to scanning. Using advanced file reconstruction and inversion algorithms, FlashCT allows OrthoProofUSA to perform a two-minute scan of the impressions for each model and directly create digital models in an automated, clean and environmentally friendly process. This system also has the ability to scan plaster and resin models; consequently, this comes in handy for offices that lack sufficient physical storage space and want to archive their old study model casts to save on model storage costs.

What sort of training does an orthodontist need to use your system?
Petty: The DigiModel viewer software, a Windows-based application that can also be used with Mac systems, is user-friendly and does not require specialized training to operate the software. Given a little practice, the orthodontist can quickly master the tools needed to use and manipulate 3-D models. Our company provides training to the orthodontist and his/her staff most commonly via online meetings. These training sessions, including IT support and software configuration, usually take about one to two hours depending on the level of assistance requested. For clients just getting started, the online meetings usually last less than an hour. During these training sessions, the doctor and his staff can learn not only how to use the DigiModel viewer and treatment planning software but also how to integrate the digital models into patient management systems and automatically receive their digital models online. For multiple computer, multi-office, or server-based installations, depending on the level of complexity, on-site training and IT support are also available.
Post-processing using 3-D software is performed by laboratory technicians who prepare the raw digital files using bite alignment and base attachment software tools.

Explain the process required to create and receive a 3-D model using your process.
Petty: The process for creating a model starts when the practice takes impressions and a bite registration and sends them to our factory via FedEx second-day delivery. Because the FlashCT SuperScan machines do not scan metal objects well, impressions cannot be submitted using metal trays. For this reason, plastic disposable impression trays are required in our process. Alginate, PVS and PVS-like impression material are acceptable for impression submission while bite registrations can be submitted in a variety of medium including wax and PVS. Impression materials are packaged in second-day FedEx shipping boxes, along with a prescription form for each model requested. Shipping material, including boxes and return postage, are supplied by OrthoProofUSA. The package is then shipped to our factory in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where orders are received Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays.

Once the impressions have been received and placed in queue for database entry, each impression set is individually loaded into the SuperScan machine and undergoes a two minute scan. At this stage, each model consists of a collection of several hundred CT radiographs. After the scan is complete, a large bank of computer processors known as "the cluster" reconstructs these radiographs into a 3-D volume, which is used to create a polygonal mesh and, ultimately, the digital model. Post-processing using 3-D software is performed by laboratory technicians who prepare the raw digital files using bite alignment and base attachment software tools. Once the final model is digitally assembled, it undergoes quality assurance checks and is uploaded to the factory server for distribution to the customer. Digital models are made available to customers through our Web site within 72 hours of factory receipt. Models are automatically downloaded by the customer using a software application that is included with the DigiModel viewer.

What types of things can orthodontists do with a 3-D model that they can't with a physical model?
Petty: Customers using DigiModel 3D model viewer and treatment planning tools are able to conduct more precise treatment planning that can be electronically saved and shared with colleagues. First, customized report-generating tools allow the doctor to re-create the same types of reports for each patient at the click of a button. Such reports can be electronically shared for collaboration and consultation with other doctors. Second, the DigiModel software contains a bite registration tool that allows the doctor to adjust the occlusion after the model has been downloaded. Third, customers who have gone "all digital" in their practices but wish to have an occasional physical model created from past 3-D model files can do so using our process. Back-up copies of each digital model are stored by our company for 13 years, and customers can request that an archived model file be prepared for physical reproduction using stereo lithography and layered manufacturing processes. Finally, 3-D models are being used more and more to facilitate the manufacture of orthodontic appliances and other orthodontic-related products.

For orthodontists currently using your technology, what changes and/or improvements can they expect in the near future?
Petty: With the support of 3M and our technical staff, we see a future of expanding applications for digital models. Digitally based appliance manufacturing, precision bonding solutions, and advanced diagnostic tools are all improvements that we are pursuing. Our current focus for future development is on improving the diagnostic capabilities of our DigiModel software to include an orthodontic treatment "set up" solution to support precision bonding systems.

For more information, please visit www.orthoproofusa.com.
Orthotown Magazine
September 2025
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