Understanding that competitiveness in the orthodontics domain requires being ahead of the curve and delivering significant improvements, LightForce Orthodontics implements advances in brackets-based treatment protocol, uniting 3D printing, orthodontic insight, and digital treatment. To make their platform even more flexible, customizable, easy to use, and automated, the company relies on the AMC Bridge development team with extensive experience in 3D development projects.
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Customer Benefits
- An innovative, automated, robust platform used for orthodontic treatment and brackets model generation.
- Reduced time spent for the whole product manufacturing workflow.
- Remarkable business expansion and customer growth.
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Project Highlights
- Implementation of software performing the LightForce Orthodontics product manufacturing workflow.
- Automation of product manufacturing processes such as jaw scan segmentation, treatment planning, and 3D printing.
- Integration of all parts of the internal workflow into one cloud-based application.
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Why AMC Bridge?
- AMC Bridge engineers’ mathematical background and extensive expertise in developing desktop, web, and cloud solutions.
- AMC Bridge’s proven track record of successfully delivering 3D development projects.
Client
LightForce is a Massachusetts-based manufacturer of the world’s first fully customized, 3D-printed brackets. Using next-generation 3D printing technology, LightForce creates 100% patient-matched orthodontic brackets designed from digital impressions to reduce treatment duration for patients and chair time for clinicians.
Challenges
To continue delivering significant advancements in brackets-based treatment protocol, LightForce aimed to improve their suite of applications for custom brackets generation to support the entire life cycle of orthodontic treatment. The main challenge was to enhance the existing workflow by making it faster and more accurate with expanded process automation and with more design tools for users.
Initially, the workflow didn’t include tooth segmentation tools—software that delineates individual teeth from surrounding gums. This process was key to improving order processing speed and accuracy.
In order to quickly leverage their unique domain-specific knowledge, the client needed the right 3D modeling and analysis developers to create the segmentation solution. AMC Bridge’s profound expertise and great experience in 3D development became a decisive factor for LightForce to engage us for this project.
Solution
As the client’s business was going through significant transformations caused by dynamic growth, new software-related needs emerged. Among a large scope of things to be done, the critical ones were related to the transition to the cloud, encapsulation of all internal services in one web application, and introduction of support for fully automated control over brackets printing.
To meet LightForce’s expectations, the AMC Bridge developers studied the business logic, basic and core concepts of orthodontic treatment, and teeth alignment.
During the collaboration, our team managed to design and implement complex integrated solutions that helped support LightForce’s growth. One such solution was the segmentation of teeth from the dental models essential for an important preprocess in CAD orthodontics, optimized to minimize manual interactions. Hence our team proposed and implemented algorithms that allow and automate:
- Jaw scan segmentation.
- Processing of use cases that require open tooth closure.
After successfully delivering the segmentation solution, the client engaged our team in other tasks.
As a result, the AMC Bridge team provided the following enhancements:
- Migrating the segmentation solution to the cloud.
- Automated segmentation, treatment planning, and 3D printing processes.
- Introduced new tools and interfaces.
- All parts of the internal workflow integrated into one application.
- Accelerated brackets model generation.
The derived infrastructure system provides complex calculations in the cloud and on desktop, data transfer, and different types of user collaboration for CAD technicians, orthodontic treatment planners, quality assurance engineers, doctors, and so on.
Process
The AMC Bridge software development engineers joined the project as a dedicated team. As cooperation evolved, the team grew from a single engineer to a multi-functional development group that is now contributing to both LightForce’s clinical (3D-related development) and non-clinical (automation and support of 3D printing, ERP, payments, and so on) teams.
Due to the full integration of our team into the client’s processes and the essence of the project, the agile scrum methodology was selected. Reporting on the project status was organized through daily communication during scrum rituals and direct communication with end users, stakeholders, and product managers.
Working in close collaboration with LightForce, our team researched, studied, and implemented a wide range of technologies, which resulted in overcoming the following main project challenges:
- Design and implementation of tools for 3D orthodontic scan processing.
- Implementation of tools for orthodontic treatment planning (OTP).
- Automation of the 3D printing workflow.
Results
The enhanced solution has allowed LightForce to rapidly scale their business while maintaining quick turnaround on treatment plans. Due to cloud integration, doctors who use LightForce’s LightPlan software tool for digital treatment planning can scale up their operations and are able to create, adjust, and approve treatment plans without having to install software.
With patient-specific customization and LightForce’s patented 3D printing technology, LightForce braces are more comfortable and can provide the opportunity to treat molars without extraction. Some doctors have found treatment time to be shorter, requiring fewer doctor visits compared to alternative systems.
Craig Sidorchuk, Director of Software Engineering at LightForce Orthodontics, has accentuated the exceptional professionalism of the AMC Bridge team:
“I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the efforts of the AMC Bridge team. I, and LightForce, appreciate their effort and continued partnership with AMC Bridge.”
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