After recent stop in Chicago, Dr. Barsoum explains the purpose of the educational events and the role 3D digital workflows can play in dentistry.
By Stan Goff, Senior Managing Editor
3D printers have been a big deal at SprintRay for a decade now, but dental restorative capabilities with the technology are relatively new. Digital workflows powered by SprintRay Midas are offering new solutions for fabricating chairside restorations.
The Midas World Tour included a stop in Chicago where attendees received hands-on instruction on a fully integrated digital restorative workflow that connects scanning, additive manufacturing, materials science, and finishing into a same-day restorative chairside outcome.
In an effort to inform more clinicians about just what all this technology can do today, SprintRay launched the Midas World Tour, a new program created through individual collaborations with dental companies GC America, Align Technology, and Meisinger Dental to help accelerate the next phase of restorative care. Together, these companies are helping SprintRay deliver a fully integrated digital restorative workflow that connects scanning, additive manufacturing, materials science, and finishing into a same-day restorative chairside outcome for patients.
Meena Barsoum, DMD, is the global head of clinical strategy at SprintRay and practicing dentist/owner of Impressive Smiles in Illinois. After helping educate participants at a recent Midas World Tour stop in Chicago, he shared his thoughts on how important these events are and how innovative and impactful these digital restorative workflows have become.
“We’ve done this so many times over the last couple years that it’s become pretty routine for us to put them on, but it’s always great. It was in my hometown, so it was nice to be able to see a lot of familiar faces,” he said of the June 12 event.
“The Midas Tour specifically is an educational event, a full-day, hands-on immersive educational event on Midas workflows. Midas is our first restorative focus at SprintRay. We’ve been obviously building our Pro2 3D printer and our Pro line over the last 10 years has been based on removables, prosthetics, nightguards, retainers, models, etc. Midas really brings us into the restorative space with our highly ceramic filled materials. So, when we started, putting Midas out there in the market, we realized there’s a lack of education on just basic, restorative design and partial coverage dentistry.”
That’s what brought the Midas World Tour about.
Dr. Meena Barsoum, right, presents at the SprintRay Midas World Tour.
With the educational tour, SprintRay seeks to address the dental industry shift toward same-visit treatment as digital adoption accelerates globally. Each of the dental company partners involved owns a critical piece of the restorative process. Together, they complement one another to support a seamless, efficient, end-to-end chairside restorative workflow in a patient’s single visit.
Align Technology’s iTero scanners are designed to provide high-precision digital restorative scans that form the clinical foundation of each case. SprintRay converts that data into final restorations in under 10 minutes through its AI-design studio and Midas Digital Press, a capsule-based 3D printing ecosystem.
GC America brings 105 years of materials science expertise focusing on evidenced-based dentistry, while Meisinger Dental supports the digital workflow with high-precision rotary instruments for preparing natural tooth structure and finishing restorative materials with burs specifically developed for 3D printed restorations.
“So, the mission was let’s create a full-day event where doctors come in, they understand the indications for partial coverage, full coverage restorations, how to utilize Midas to be conservative, how to change your preparation designs to be more in tune with conservative dentistry,” Dr. Barsoum explained. “Then they actually do it themselves. There’s a whole segment on preparation so the faculty will go around and give assessments on the preparation. The doctors will actually get to utilize scanners from our partners with Align and Itero, so they’re able to scan their preps, and then using design software to actually design their restoration. So, it basically takes you A to Z throughout the whole procedure.”
The Midas World Tour has several more events this year, with Toronto, Seattle and San Antonio on the calendar for July.
“This is a category shifting accelerator,” John Cox, SprintRay chief growth officer, stated in a press release prior to the Chicago tour. “For years, single-visit restorative dentistry was limited to a small percentage of practices that could afford complex, expensive systems, and learn design. By aligning leaders in scanning, additive manufacturing, and material science around one engineered workflow, we are making that capability attainable for more dentists than ever before. This is not about selling products. It is about unlocking access to same-day restorative care at scale. We are fueling that shift the best way we know how, through education that empowers clinicians to confidently lead the digital transition.”
The clinical backbone of the education tour is powered by MOD Institute. Midas World Tour education events will award 7 continuing education (CE) credits across 40 stops in 12 countries. From scan to seat, attendees receive detailed, hands-on instruction focused on real-world execution of a digital restorative workflow.
When 3D printers first made their mark in dentistry it was primarily for manufacturing removables, nightguards, models, and other appliances. Now, dentists can do so much more.
“There’s so much more [3D printers can accomplish] and I think once doctors understand what they can use this for, it becomes kind of an eye opener for them,” Dr. Barsoum said.
He did add that clinicians should understand that not all restorations are great fits for 3D printing, but for those that are, the Midas digital workflow can produce efficient, affordable outcomes.
“You have to be prescriptive about what you do,” he said. “If a patient requires a high strength material like zirconia, then you should prescribe zirconia; if they can benefit from a conservative partial coverage onlay, or a conservative crown onlay preparation, that’s kind of where Midas fits in, as it fills in that second gap.”
Another capability with Midas is prepless veneers. This becomes a new indication for dentists who don’t have that capability currently. A patient can come in, and you can scan them, use the SprintRay design service, and have a set of veneers made that are bonded in, made chair side. “You bond them and you change someone’s smile in a very conservative way,” Dr. Barsoum said. “Those are all things that just kind of unlock treatment options and potentials for dentists when they bring this technology in.”
At the CDS Chicago Midwinter Meeting in February, SprintRay launched its next leap in chairside manufacturing with the new multi-unit restoration and preventive workflows. The company demonstrated new Midas multi-unit restorations and new Pro 2 materials designed to improve clinical precision, performance, and patient outcomes across same-day dental workflows. This latest advancement brings with it the ability to provide a Trial Smile for patients, something that the company expects to help clinicians get more patients on board with their restorative treatments.
“Our multi-unit capsule allows us to do something called a Trial Smile for a patient. They can come in, I can take a scan, and our designers at SprintRay—it’s a 3-day turnaround with a flat fee of $100 per arch—will turn around an 8- or 10-unit Smile Trial that you can print on that multi-unit capsule, put it right on their teeth, and show them what’s possible,” Dr. Barsoum added. “That kind of helps seal the case acceptance, and it also creates a provisional shell that you can make the temporaries out of. It’s a really nice workflow for people who aren’t maybe as familiar with cosmetic dentistry.”
The full-day, hands-on course is designed to have clinicians walk out ready to take advantage of the many capabilities of the Midas 3D digital workflows. Photos courtesy of SprintRay.
With adoption in the U.S. approaching 20 percent, 3D printing has crossed from innovation to expectation. This Midas World Tour collaboration reflects the industry’s move towards integrated 3D printing workflows as the new standard of chairside restorative dentistry. Wally Renne, DMD, founder of the MOD Institute stated, “3D printing isn’t the future. It’s right now. The clinicians who master these workflows today will influence the next decade. The rest will watch.”
The Midas World Tour had almost 2 dozen events last year and has doubled that number in 2026 as the interest in 3D printing restorative workflows grows.
Dr. Barsoum practices what he preaches. He expects the tour attendees to do the same.
“Right off the bat, they’re taking stuff home with them, which is great, and especially the ones that currently had Midas,” he said. “I mean, eyes were open when we showed them the ability to do these Trial Smiles and some of these workflows in their office. To me that’s what I’m in it for, in terms of dentistry, is all the fun that you get when you see other clinicians get that eye-opening moment of, oh man, this can be done… and it’s really enjoyable for me to see that.”
His Impressive Smiles practice is located in Arlington Heights, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. “My job is basically looking at our different solutions and finding ways to make sure they are relevant for the practicing clinician, and it was important for me to continue to practice to do that, because I have to be able to use what we promote,” he explained. “I use Midas every single day, so for me it was important to maintain the practice in this role.”
He practices in the office 3 days a week while working for SprintRay 5 days a week.
“I think the biggest message to take away is that Midas is a definitive restorative material. It is a workflow that any practice with a scanner can integrate in a very, you know, painless way, and we just want the readers to understand that it shouldn’t be scary anymore, and it’s not a life-changing investment that you’re making in the practice,” Dr. Barsoum concluded. “It’s affordable, cost-effective to operate, and it’s simple for any user to run. So, take a look at it. I think that’s the best advice I could give any dentist.”
