Orthodontic labs have gone digital. Intraoral scans, CAD software, and 3D printing are now standard. But going digital didn't solve everything. It just moved the bottleneck.
Most labs still rely on manual work between scan input and production output. Scan preparation, model trimming, occlusion correction, appliance design… Steps that are essential, but also repetitive and time-consuming.
As case volumes grow, this becomes a real problem. Experienced technicians get overwhelmed. Turnaround times stretch. And the only obvious fix is hiring more people. As Orthoproof, a high-volume lab in Benelux, put it:
"We simply couldn't clean and base models manually anymore. The volumes were exploding."
Let AI go first
Leading labs are now rethinking the order of operations. Instead of technicians doing everything, AI handles the first pass. The technician reviews, adjusts, and approves. Think of it this way: AI gets you 90–100% of the way there. Your team takes care of the last mile.
The most repetitive, time-consuming parts of CAD work can now run automatically. Model preparation (scan cleaning, trimming, and base generation) no longer ties up skilled staff. Retainers, bleaching trays, and night guards are consistently generated according to your preferences, resulting in fewer adjustments. Artifact removal, bite correction, bracket attachment, and wire removal happen automatically, reducing work before design even starts. And specialized tasks like molar ditching and trimline generation — work that traditionally required highly skilled technicians — can run on autopilot.
All of this runs in a continuous cloud pipeline, 24/7, without manual handoffs. Technicians can walk into the lab each morning with a significant head start.
Scans are uploaded in bulk or via a local folder sync for further automation. AI generates the designs. Technician teams review and approve. Cases are exported directly into manufacturing. The result: shorter turnaround times, more consistent output, and less variability across teams and locations.
"The dental models just look really sharp. You feel the AI system allows for good control of the end result." - Orthoproof
Scale without adding headcount
Skilled digital technicians are extremely hard to find. Traditional workflows used to scale linearly, more cases, more people. But AI changes that equation.
Routine design work is automated with AI. Your team focuses on complex, high-value cases. Production capacity increases without proportional hiring. Technicians stay essential, but their role shifts from executing repetitive tasks to reviewing outputs and managing the outliers and exceptions. Orthoproof's confidence in the output says it all:
"We print blind. We don't even see the models before printing anymore."
We see an industry trend toward controlled automation, where scans flow through pipelines with minimal intervention, and quality is checked on the final result.
A Final Word
"AI is a catalyst for lab productivity. In the old ways, technicians needed to work nights and weekends to get everything designed in time during busy weeks. In the new ways, AI has done 90% of the work when you enter your lab." — Holger Willems, Co-Founder of Relu
