An Interview with exocad’s Beth Collington

Industry veteran Beth Collington joined exocad as Managing Director earlier this year and became President of exocad America as of April 1, 2024. Inside Dental Technology spoke with Collington in an exclusive interview about the company, the future of collaboration and the dental industry, the upcoming Insights 2024 event, and more.

Inside Dental Technology (IDT): What made exocad such a great fit for you?

Beth Collington (BC): I have always felt working in the dental industry is a lifestyle, not a job. Prior to joining exocad, I had the amazing opportunity to learn the laboratory and clinical business on multiple levels within different roles throughout my career in sales, business development, education and sales training, product management, material development, technical support and global and strategic planning. Working for two other dental market leaders in my career, I learned a lot about what it takes to succeed and excel within an organization, and what it takes to get the job done. Bringing those guiding principles forward to build a team is what excites me about the opportunity to partner with and lead the exocad North America team. Together, we will continue to grow and support our customers with the best options and opportunities to serve their businesses.

IDT: How has your onboarding experience been, and what have you learned about the global culture of exocad?

BC: I am so excited to be a part of and contribute to the exocad culture. Living the dental lifestyle, I see this as a perfect role for me, as I have watched exocad’s leading role in clinical and laboratory software solutions continue to evolve. Onboarding with the team in both the US and Germany has been wonderful. This company prioritizes a commitment to its customers and their businesses to educate, support, and deliver both the products and the support needed to enable them to design and manage seamless manufacturing of high-quality prosthetic solutions. As exocad has expanded internationally over the last decade, I have observed its culture change, and it is truly amazing to be a part of it now. The exocad team understands the value of high-level consultation in education, which I firmly believe is the key for success in this industry. The importance of a seamless connection between dentists and laboratories continues to increase and exocad’s software is helping them navigate those options.

IDT: What excites you most in the world of digital dentistry?

BC: There are so many opportunities…What excites me is solving challenges associated with the diversity of third-party systems that need to be connected and encouraging people not to be afraid to change. The evolution and integration of CAD/CAM systems is so exciting, regardless of whether they are currently open or being supportive to and through the challenges in communicating through a closed system. You have to look at the multiple levels and opportunities to offer the most benefits to both laboratories and clinicians. I consider exocad the Google Android of the dental industry: Here is this amazing operating system that continues to evolve, advance, and integrate into various manufacturing hardware. exocad has been driving innovation for years, releasing a number of cutting-edge innovations each year. While hardware continues to improve, no one system can out-innovate an open market—especially fast enough for the next opportunity in our industry. exocad is ahead of the curve, and our team is working hard every day to support our customers and deliver the highest level of solutions to end users. We have a large team of developers in Germany, with 13 years of experience, and we have a strong North American team of application support specialists and engineers. We are very proud of the fact that more than 55,000 licenses have been sold in over 150 countries, and we are here to continue to support the growth of the dental industry.

IDT: What are some of the most important CAD/CAM trends you’re observing this year, particularly in North America?

BC: There are so many areas of opportunity, but a particularly hot topic for me is supporting the highest levels of speed and efficiency in planning and design software, regardless of whether the workflow is for removable or fixed restorations. We offer seamless integrated solutions with iTero intraoral scanners and our software. We help our customers navigate the impact of artificial intelligence trends on today’s laboratories. We are focusing on educational platforms to provide support, and on understanding how these options can be integrated and utilized to their fullest potential through the collaboration of a trained network. We cannot forget that everything we all do here as manufacturers, resellers, laboratories, and clinicians comes down to one final thing: utilizing exocad as your strategic partner to help create the ultimate cosmetic functioning restorative smile every time.

IDT: What are the key drivers for successful collaboration between laboratories and dental practices?

BC: An approach to the digital dentistry ecosystem with a multidisciplinary perspective is important. The industry is seeing so many evolutions in so many different segments, from software to hardware and materials. exocad is extremely well placed to support these trends and ever-changing technologies because of the speed at which we can deliver software solutions to our industry partners who are supporting both laboratories and clinicians. Whether it is DentalCAD, ChairsideCAD or exoplan, exocad has a hand on the heartbeat of technicians and their loyalty. Our company has strong resources to pioneer and scale innovation for the dental industry.

IDT: How do you envision the future of those collaborative relationships?

BC: I believe the future of the dental industry is bright. I am so happy to be in dentistry because there has never been a more exciting time for it. Consolidation has created so much growth. So many dentists are engaging in final prosthetic solutions and understanding and utilizing these new workflows to communicate better with their laboratories; the old way of doing things has passed us by. I also cannot recall a time when education has been so critical in reaching the next level of success. Our industry is poised for great things. We have seen significant growth in terms of units, and we have seen growth in both removable and fixed prosthetics. It is a great time to be part of and support this industry with exocad’s software solutions.

IDT: Why should dental technicians, dentists, and their teams participate in exocad’s Insights 2024 event May 9-10 in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, how can this “premium education event” help dental professionals take their digital workflows to the next level?

BC: exocad is the worldwide market leader in the laboratory software business. We created this premium education platform in Mallorca to really help teach and share our newest innovations as part of a collaborative platform of global exocad supporters to exchange information and support them. I highly recommend joining us in this Mediterranean setting to immerse yourself in a high-quality educational experience.

IDT: How critical is the collaborative element to Insights?

BC: Beyond even dentists and laboratories, every part of the dental team is communicating at higher levels than ever before. Everybody is on a team now, and that is a shift. There has always been the traditional doctor-patient relationship, and the hygiene staff stays in their lane, and treatment planning stays in their lane. All those people have really come together, and the value of communication with laboratories has evolved. People are completely engaged in the value of what that partnership looks like. Dentists also are realizing not everything can be done chairside; some of them, early on, invested in systems in an attempt do it all by themselves, but that workflow has largely shifted back to a balance of the dentist and the laboratory collaborating successfully to utilize digital technology on both sides for optimum communication and results.

IDT: How does exocad fit in that equation?

BC: Let me demonstrate that by sharing a personal anecdote. I love to ski, and recently I decided to step outside my comfort zone on a more difficult mountain. For a moment, I was intimidated, but I asked myself, “How am I going to solve this problem?” That approach, in that moment, was analogous to how we help our customers: “How are we going to solve this problem? What is my technical approach to it? What is my strategic approach to it? How am I going to get this job done? I love that approach to dentistry and laboratory processes. It is about focusing on where you really want to go and then utilizing a strategic process to get there, and exocad is a great partner for that.