Milling the future of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean

DDS Caribbean is a company committed to providing the best solutions for digital dentistry equipment and services in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.

In early 2014, Abdel Tapanes was given the task of researching the dental market in Puerto Rico, and found that CAD/CAM technology was practically nonexistent there. The laboratories and clinics on the island were forced to work with entities outside the territory to accomplish digital restorations. Many local professionals worked with U.S. entities or even with facilities as far away as Asia and Europe.

Abdel Tapanes and his team have a long history in other markets that have seen the transition from analogue processes to streamlined digital work. Recognizing a similar trend in the dental environment in Puerto Rico, Abdel created DDS Caribbean and looked for companies and products that provided suitable solutions to boost the Puerto Rican dental market. They summoned representatives of the best companies in the CAD/CAM industry. Their goal was to develop the digital dental market by offering innovative solutions, not only as an equipment distributor but also as a digital laboratory that could demonstrate dependable, versatile and high quality dental production to local clinics and encourage them in the adoption of digital methodologies. DDS Caribbean has one motto: to provide cutting edge technology solutions, which produce restorations of the highest reliability and fidelity.

Currently the company has five employees in a 3,000 square foot facility, relying on four Roland devices including two DWX-51D 5-axis milling machines, one DWX-4W wet dental mill and a DWX-4, supplemented with four additional DWX milling machines in other laboratories that have begun the CAD/CAM technology adoption in their workflow.

A special feature of DDS Caribbean is the variety of different services offered by the company. They have dedicated staff to take intraoral digital impressions. This division accepts appointments with dentists to take impressions with an intraoral scanner, which are then developed at DDS Caribbean or other laboratories in the country. This allows doctors to be exposed to intraoral digital impressions, showing the ease of use of an intraoral scanner and the accuracy, adaptation and fidelity of anatomy and occlusion of the final restoration. The laboratory area of the company is dedicated to receiving digital cases from dentists who already make their own digital impressions with intraoral scanners. In addition to receiving these cases, DDS Caribbean digitalizes models and provides milling services to laboratories that are on their way to digitalization. Finally, DDS Caribbean also offers support to customers that currently have full scanning capability,along with design and milling.

Quality + Efficiency = incomparable results

The quality and efficiency of Roland’s dental milling machines have enabled DDS Caribbean to grow rapidly in a short period of time. In terms of productivity and quality, the results are unmatched. The workflow with 3Shape and Roland equipment is so effective that the re-do rate is less than 1%, which allows the company to deliver its dental work on time, earning higher profit margins.

“We’ve achieved unparalleled results with Roland’s dental mills. Our dental prosthetics production went from 30 to 500 units in one month,” said Abdel Tapanes, president of DDS Caribbean Corp. “We were fortunate to team up with Roland since the first day and I must say it has been a very pleasant experience.”

Looking forward: expansion

DDS Caribbean is expanding to include production of fixed restorations, working on periodontics and orthodontics cases digitally. They are also developing a series of workshops targeted to dental clinics to encourage the use of Roland’s milling machines. This will allow doctors to effectively incorporate dental CAD/CAM technologies into their daily workflow.

As dental milling machine distributors, this year the company has sent milling equipment to Jamaica, Nassau and other Caribbean islands hoping to expand their services.

“We’ve worked with Roland for over 20 years for many reasons, but I’d especially like to highlight the reliability Roland provides. Their top quality products and unique guarantee system allow us to be confident that we will have all the support we need,” Abdel concluded.

In just 24 months, DDS Caribbean has changed the face of the dental industry in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.