Scan to seat.
A digital case removes shipping and model steps from the front of the workflow. Everything after the file arrives follows the same logic as a conventional case.
Capture and transfer
The case is scanned and sent — through the scanner's portal where one is connected, or as exported files. A portal transfer arrives complete, with the scan, case setup and any software prescription travelling together.
Transfer is effectively instant, which is the largest practical difference from a conventional case. Design work can begin the day the case is captured rather than after a courier cycle.
For a practice at any distance from the laboratory, that is frequently the more valuable benefit rather than any accuracy argument.
Inspection on arrival
The first thing that happens is that somebody looks at the file properly: is the margin identifiable around its full circumference, are there holes in the data, does the insertion axis make sense, and does the bite alignment produce contacts consistent with the case.
This is deliberately at the front, because a records problem is cheapest to resolve before any work has been done. It is also where most calls to practices originate.
A case carrying a complete prescription usually passes straight through.
Design
CAD design establishes the restoration's contour, occlusal scheme, contacts, emergence and margin adaptation, working from the file, the prescription and whatever clinical intent was communicated.
Automated proposals speed routine work and they produce a plausible answer from the data given — which means a technician reviews and modifies rather than accepting. Where a margin was ambiguous in the scan, the software will propose one anyway, confidently and smoothly.
Design is where clinical intent either arrives or has to be inferred, which is why the prescription matters as much as the file.
Production and finishing
The restoration is milled or pressed, then finished — stained, characterized and either glazed or mechanically polished depending on the material and the case.
Layered work goes through additional firings, and those cycles are fixed by the material. Slow cooling on zirconia-supported ceramic exists for a specific reason and cannot be shortened.
Finishing is where much of the quality sits on a monolithic restoration, because there is no layering to carry the aesthetic work.
Physical models, when they help
Some cases proceed entirely without one. Others benefit — where contacts and emergence need assessing by hand, where a soft tissue model helps judge an implant profile, or where a restoration has to be checked against adjacent work physically.
It is a decision rather than an automatic step, and one worth stating if you have a preference.
Where a digital case can still stall
Almost always at the same points: a margin that cannot be read, a bite alignment that produces implausible contacts, an implant case without component detail, or a software prescription that contradicts the written one.
Each of those stops the case until the practice answers, and a query raised on a Friday and answered the following Wednesday costs most of a week regardless of how quickly anyone worked.
The defence is at the front — a complete prescription and two minutes of on-screen review before sending.
Delivery
Contacts are checked against the adjacent teeth as recorded, occlusion verified in intercuspation and excursion, contour and emergence assessed, and surface finish confirmed. Everything is disinfected before dispatch.
Cases return by UPS or Purolator. Book the seat appointment against a confirmed date rather than an assumed one — that single habit removes most scheduling friction.
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Send a case
Digital scans and conventional impressions are both accepted. Cases move by UPS and Purolator, and Fairmont works with practices throughout British Columbia and across Canada.