I'm David Kamarauli, a dental technician in Jupiter, Florida. I worked at the bench before I moved into CAD/CAM, and I have been in digital dentistry for 15 years. In that time I have done both: designing in exocad and 3Shape, and supporting the equipment and training the people who run it.
The last five years I have worked almost exclusively on the hard end of it. All-on-X and full-arch, photogrammetry, full-mouth wax-ups, and complex cases that other labs pass on. That is the work I want more of.
What I do
I came up as a manual dental technician and worked at the bench before I moved to CAD. Crowns, bridges and full-arch work made by hand, in wax, metal and ceramic. Most CAD in this trade is done by people who learned the software first; I learned the tooth first and put the software on top of it.
Fifteen years in digital dentistry. exocad and 3Shape for design, Millbox and SUM3D on the CAM side, which is where a design either cuts or does not. I also support the equipment this runs on and teach all three programs to technicians and doctors, so I know how a case fails on a machine that is not mine.
The work I take now is the difficult end of it: All-on-X and full-arch, photogrammetry and implant position alignment, full-mouth wax-ups, and complex multi-unit cases other labs send on. Cases where the bite, the implant positions and the material all have to agree before anything can be designed.
Start with the records. Before designing anything I check that the scan is readable, that the bite makes sense, and that the implant positions will actually carry the design being asked for. When one of those is wrong it is worth a message before the design, because a remake after it costs more.
Then design to the outcome: what the case will be made in, how it will be seated, where the screw access needs to land, and what the clinician has to see to approve it. Preview renders go back for sign-off before anything is finalised.
I still teach, so if your lab is moving onto Millbox, SUM3D or exocad and needs the design work and the people trained together, that is one conversation rather than two. Say so and I will walk through the whole workflow instead of one case.