Montreal, Zug, July 14, 2011 - Dental Wings has taken a further step towards its goal of establishing a global standard software platform in the dental industry. The Canadian software developer announced today that it has signed a broad cooperation agreement with ‘absolute Ceramics’ (Biodentis GmbH) – an industrial manufacturer of dental prosthetics based in Germany.

The agreement enables absolute Ceramics to integrate Dental Wings’ DWOS software platform in its CADCAM system, broadening functionality considerably. With DWOS installed at its production center and in its Matchpoint Scan/Design system, the company will start to offer custom abutments for all leading implant systems, in addition its own Infix technology. The shared common software platform also makes absolute Ceramics’ digital workflow compatible with the LAVA COS intraoral scanner sold by 3M ESPE, which absolute Ceramics offers to its customers.

Meinhard Schmidt, Chairman of Dental Wings, commented: “A shared standard software platform enables fast moving companies like Biodentis to offer a new level of flexibility and functionality to customers - which was unthinkable just a few months ago. Using DWOS allows Biodentis to provide integrated workflows to their customers. At the same time it does not prevent them from competing for prosthetic business with other partners in our collaboration. That shows that we are offering a truly open platform with benefits for large and small players across the dental arena. Interest in our initiative with Straumann and 3M ESPE to establish and shape global standard software is growing and we are working with a number of companies who have responded to our open invitation to join us”.

Frank Preuss, founder and CEO Biodentis, the company behind the absolute Ceramics brand commented: “The collaboration not only allows us to offer a full product portfolio to our customers but helps us to support truly digital workflows between dentists and dental technicians even across so far closed system boundaries”.

Standardization acutely needed

The need for standardization in digital dentistry is acute as the number of different systems has risen considerably, adding complexity for dentists and dental laboratories. Standardized software could solve this situation and is expected to be a main driver of the digital market in the coming years.

In March this year, Dental Wings joined forces in a collaborative partnership with 3M ESPE and Straumann to create an open standard software platform for use across a range of dental applications. At the same time, 3M ESPE and Straumann announced their intention to adopt Dental Wings’ DWOS platform, as the core operating software in their CADCAM solutions. Biodentis is the fourth company to join the initiative.

About DWOS

Dental Wings’ operating system, DWOS, is a commercially available open software system that offers dental laboratories the flexibility of designing prosthetics using data from multiple systems and sources. The scope, quality, and functionality of the DWOS platform make it a software solution of choice for communication, design and collaboration within dentistry.

About absolute Ceramics (Biodentis)

Based in Leipzig Germany, absolute Ceramics is a leading dental technology company offering customers, dental practices and laboratories future-oriented solutions for industrially produced prosthetics.

About Dental Wings

Established in 2007, Dental Wings is a leading provider of dental CADCAM solutions and is specialized in the development of design and manufacturing software dedicated to different dental market segments. The company, also develops, manufactures and sells 3D scanners to the dental industry. It is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Dental Wings recently decided to transform its scanner and software businesses into two separate entities. The software business now operates under a new company brand, ‘Open Digital Dentistry’, which will develop and market DWOS and concentrate on the dental software business.