The MIDAS World Tour aims to accelerate adoption of same-day restorative dentistry through hands-on training—from prep and design to 3D printing and cementation
Dr. Anthony Mennito remembers when moving through the digital workflow meant loading scan files onto a thumb drive and then uploading them to a computer. “It was time-consuming, and it wasn’t always easy to keep track of everything,” he recalled.
It’s safe to say we’ve come a long way. Today, that evolution is on full display with the MIDAS World Tour, a global educational initiative powered by The MOD Institute. Spanning more than 30 stops worldwide, the course offers 7 CE credits and delivers hands-on instruction designed to walk clinicians through the complete digital restorative workflow.
A Front-Row Seat for Every Dentist
Headlining the tour is SprintRay’s MIDAS Digital Press, a capsule-based 3D-printing ecosystem. It's backed by 3 partners that each play a critical role in the restorative workflow—the iTero intraoral scanner, GC America’s adhesive and cementation materials, and Meisinger Dental’s high-precision burs made for prepping and finishing 3D-printed restorations.
“Dentists are going to be prepping teeth, designing their restorations, working hands-on with the 3D printer, and doing the post-processing—all the way through cementation,” said Dr. Mennito, who is one of the course instructors. “It really is everything you would need to know about how to do the workflow successfully, holding nothing back. It’s a jam-packed day, but it’s a lot of fun.”
The MIDAS World Tour is centered around partial coverage philosophies. Dr. Mennito is passionate about conservative dentistry, despite the fact that it is not widely taught in dental school. "We’re trying to help dentists do better dentistry utilizing the 3D printer as a tool," he said.
"At some point," he added, "we realized that to print stronger restorations, we needed a different type of technology. The MIDAS was engineered to print more viscous, highly filled materials, and SprintRay has already started to build on that. It's the kind of technology that dentists can buy without worrying if it’ll be obsolete in a year.”
Digital Dentistry Takes Center Stage
As adoption of 3D printing continues to grow, it’s increasingly seen as a practical entry point into digital dentistry. Plus, ongoing advancements are making the workflow more streamlined and accessible, helping reduce the “fear factor” that often comes with technology adoption.
"It's not always reasonable to come out of dental school and buy a CAD/CAM system in your first 5 years of practice,” Dr. Mennito shared. “But you can buy a MIDAS and a NanoCure and still be able to do same-day dentistry at a much lower price point. It’s a really powerful way to do dentistry, and when dentists buy into that, it’s amazing to see.”
