Being able to design multiple units simultaneously is probably the greatest feature of the 4.0 software. Recently there was a discussion regarding ways to approach a case where the doctor was treating both teeth numbers 3 and 14. Basically, there are three ways to approach a case like this. The options are interesting.

- Image the full arch of the pre-operative situation. Image the full opposing arch. Image the full arch after the teeth are prepped. Image the buccal bite. Wow, that's a huge amount of work which will require a great deal of effort for both the doctor and the patient. Additionally, it will tax the resources of the machine. There are many issues that can occur to make doing it this way quite challenging.

- Image the right side pre-operative situation and then skip to the left side and image that. Go to the image catalog and ignore the images of the left side. Do the same for the opposing and ignore the left side. Do the same after both teeth are prepped and once again ignore the images the left side. Finally, take a buccal bite image of both sides and ignore the left side. Sure, you can see where this is going. Design the right side and send to the mill. Reopen the case and re-activate the ignored images and ignore all of the images for the right side. Move forward designing from this point. That's some pretty advanced image manipulation and some trickery. It's good practice for multiple adjacent units, but you can get in trouble very fast. The bottom line here is that you get slowed down at the cementation step because you need to isolate and cement separately.

- Finally, you can treat each tooth as an entirely separate case. In one instance of the program, image the right side completely and in another instance image the left. Once you finish designing one side, send it to the mill and design the opposite side. This is simple, reliable and fast. It's not glamorous and surely doesn't take advantage of the best part of 4.0, but it works well.

I am sure there are some who will use each way and feel that that's the best. There is no right or wrong here. As we all get used to the 4.0 software, just keep the basics in mind. That includes thinking through all of your options ahead of time and choosing the one that you feel most comfortable with. The end result will be the same for all options. It's the means to the end that has the ability to stress us out and change our day negatively.

Proper preplanning is the key to happiness.

Doing a C training right now, the dentist treatment planned 18, 19 , 30 ,& 31. She wanted to image both full arch, but I had her open two separate cases to keep her out of trouble. It took a loooong time, but she finished.