Nobel Biocare NobelProcera to be Featured on “How It’s Made”

I just got the news that Nobel Biocare’s NobelProcera factory will be featured on the tv show How It’s Made. This is huge on so many levels and I thought I would take just a minute to talk about it here.

First, Nobel Biocare must be given credit where it is due. They really did launch CAD/CAM manufacturing for dental technology. They were the innovator of not just CAD/CAM manufacturing, but also the center-of-excellence manufacturing model that uses remote scanners and centralized manufacturing. In fact, if not for Nobel Biocare and Procera, Dale Dental would not have begun when it did. Read story here.

I’ve walked through the Nobel Procera facility where the show was filmed and its sheer size would sooner have you believe it makes cars rather than tiny little teeth. The amount of equipment, automation and technology under that one roof is enough to make anyone marvel and definitely worthy of the retail consumers attention.

As a fan of How It’s Made i’ve often thought what a natural fit the technological evolution in dental technology would make for that show, but sometimes wondered how it could be positioned to capture the real interest of the consumer. I get the possible headlines, High Tech Teeth, 21^st Century Teeth, etc. Even dental technologies humble and most well-known beginning carving wooden teeth for George Washington compared to modern CAD/CAM, offer an immediate “stay tuned” appeal.

What I am most interested in seeing however is the part that will affect demand for the Nobel Procera restorations and how that affects our business. Nobel Biocare’s NobelProcera line has so many options and features that it is hard to know exactly what they will choose to make the big focus and “take away” message of the show.

The mass market appeal and opportunity Nobel would likely want to capitalize on is the ease and speed of doing implant procedures using patient scans and pre-planning treatment and the crown and rest of  parts that follow, however I am not sure that procedure offers the most sizzle for the target audience. The How it is Made show typically like showing mechanized robots and don’t always capture on the value created for the customer, although the latter is not really the shows purpose. Add to that the fact that Nobel does not do intra oral impression scanning yet, so the show cannot really capture that huge benefit unless they plan on including other manufacturers, etc – which I doubt is the case.

Anyway, it’s a win on so many levels and I am sure that Nobel and the shows producers have already figured out  how to create the most wins for both sides. As someone in the industry I am always happy to see increased exposure brought to what we do and I applaud Nobel Biocare’s efforts in continuing its efforts to bring our industry to light.

Here’s some information straight from the press release:

NobelProcera™ manufacturing facility to be featured on the television program “How It’s Made”  

Nobel Biocare is pleased to announce that their state-of-the-art CAD/CAM dental manufacturing facility has been chosen to be featured in an upcoming episode of How It’s Made. The segment was filmed at the company’s Mahwah, NJ facility and will focus on how a dental crown is designed and then individually manufactured.

How It’s Made is an international program produced by Productions Maj in Quebec, Canada. The show airs in more than 180 countries and focuses on the manufacturing process of many items such as airplanes, fiber optics, even toothpicks. The show has been on the air since 2001.

The segment on dental crowns is one of four topics that will be featured on this 30-minute season premiere on April 2, 2010 at 9 p.m. EST on the Science Channel.

Check your local listings for the Science Channel in your area. If you have satellite TV you can view the program on DirectTV Channel 284 and Dish Network Channel 193.

 

Tagged as: How it's made, Nobel Biocare, Nobel Procera, NobelProcera, Procera