Newsletter #1

Welcome to the Newsletter

Hey there—

Welcome to the newsletter! I’m genuinely excited to share what’s working (and what’s not) in the world of full-arch dentistry.

A little about me: I’m the owner of Ceramics West Dental Lab in Portland, Oregon. We’re a full-arch-focused lab specializing in stackable guides, temps, and final restorations using grammetry and photogrammetry workflows.

If you ever want to go deeper into any of the topics we cover here, check out my training platform at Alliance Training—it’s packed with tutorials, cases, and behind-the-scenes workflows.

I’d love to hear from you—questions, feedback, or topic ideas are always welcome. Just shoot me an email at charles@wearealliancetraining.com.

Thanks for being here—this is going to be fun. I hope that this turns into something you look forward to seeing in your inbox each Monday.

With Gratitude,

Charles

Multiunits: Nobel vs. Straumann SRA

The majority of multiunit abutments on the market are very similar to Nobel in the geometry on the seating surface. The lone exception is the Straumann multiunit abutment which is also called an SRA (screw retained abutment). The main difference is that the Straumann SRA is shorter than the Nobel type multiunit abutment. The screw seat of the Straumann SRA is also deeper.

This topic came up today when I received a text message from a Straumann rep helping out a restorative doctor. The chief complaint was that they were using Dess 19.018 temporary screws in a printed provisional and weren't feeling a solid seat due to gap between the SRA and the prosthesis. The Dess library at that time did not have the actual SRA geometry associated with the screw. The other concern was that this doctor wanted to use the authentic Straumann screws with a bar while also using the Dess scan body. Worthy to note that the data was collected via photogrammetry and the Dess scan body was geometric switched.

Great news: Dess has a library now for the 19.069 screw to Straumann SRA seat. The library also has the final Straumann screw to convert to a bar for the final restoration. Anecdotally speaking, the 19.069 screw does work with the Straumann SCS driver but only for non ASC. This is awesome because with the previous 19.018 screw I was having to verify they had the correct hex driver or send one myself just in case (for Straumann cases). If you want to use the ASC function of the 19.069 screw, you'll need the actual Dess ASC driver.

The file libary is called DESS STR BL BLX SRA DIRECT IO fda​​​ and you can download the zip file of the library here:DESS_STR_BL_BLX_SRA_DIRECT_IO_fda.zip​

That's your five minute boost! See you next week!