With a user-friendly, oven-free workflow, the fastmill.io In-Office Mill makes it possible for practices to offer single-visit dentistry and exceptional patient experiences
Like many dentists, Andrew Fletcher, DDS, has heard plenty of sales pitches that seemed too good to be true. One rep talked him into a chairside mill for his Modesto, CA, office, only to have its failure hand-waved away as a “learning curve." So, when he heard about an oven-free zirconia mill from another manufacturer, he was curious but remained skeptical. A visit to Glidewell’s Newport Beach facility to see the fastmill.io firsthand changed his perspective—and his practice.
"The technician showed me how to scan a typodont and mill out a crown, and I thought, 'That's fantastic, but I don't work on typodonts,'" he shared. "I took out a thumb drive and said, 'Here's a scan of my patient.'" The technician milled it on the spot. Dr. Fletcher took that fastmill.io crown home and placed it the next week. "It dropped right in," he said, "and my skepticism just dissolved."
More Than a Machine
After purchasing the fastmill.io in 2021, “We didn’t treat it like a machine installation,” he said. “We looked at it as a workflow change.” Glidewell’s 2-day training was “fundamentally super important” to helping his team transition into what he describes as an “entire-office ecosystem” built around the technology. The first real win came when an anxious patient showed up still numb from the endodontist.
I just happened to be walking by the front desk and said, ‘We can do the crown for you today,’” he said. The patient agreed, and Dr. Fletcher delivered his first same-day restoration. “It was perfect. Again, it just dropped into place.”
Posterior cases became routine within weeks, anterior work came next, and “within a year,” Dr. Fletcher said, “we were doing everything.”
Today, Glidewell’s BruxZir NOW and BruxZir Esthetic NOW zirconia milling blocks are “2 workhorses” that let him fabricate most posterior restorations in under 40 minutes—no sintering needed.
He also regularly reaches for CAMouflage NOW, a resin material that allows him to mill “almost anything,” including implant-friendly crowns.
Great Support from Glidewell
What solidified Dr. Fletcher’s advocacy for the fastmill.io is the support behind it. “Glidewell doesn’t just sell equipment; they’re also a lab,” he said.
Design help is always just a call away, and when one of his machines went down, Glidewell milled his crowns free of charge and delivered a new unit within days. “Skepticism is healthy,” Dr. Fletcher said. “Ask whether something will improve your dentistry, patient experience, and practice. In this case, all 3 improved.”
