Sirona and Straumann announce CAD/CAM prosthetics collaboration

Sirona Dental Systems has signed a collaboration agreement with Straumann, thus broadening its offering of CAD/CAM prosthetic technology.

The deal will enable dental practices to produce individualised implant prosthetics chairside using Straumann Variobases, supported by Sirona's CEREC system. Sirona lab customers, meanwhile, will be able to use Straumann's centralised milling option within the Sirona inLab workflow.

Moreover, Sirona will be expanding its offering for Straumann implants to include TiBases manufactured by Straumann, and marketed as part of the Variobase family, in its CEREC/inLab workflow for customised abutments. The software update is planned for early 2016.

It was also announced that the companies have settled a number of mutual patent disputes, thus strengthening their business relationships.

Jeff Slovin, chief executive officer of Sirona, said: "Our new collaboration with Straumann will provide CEREC and inLab users a choice between Sirona's TiBases and Straumann's Variobases for CEREC, when they create customised abutments with CEREC or inLab."

This comes after Sirona agreed a new material partnership for CAD/CAM blocks with Japanese dental manufacturer Shofu last month.