Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
New Zealand-based dentist, educator, and international speaker Dr Ahmad Al-Hassiny has tested the tools, taught the technology, and run the workflows. His message for labs: digital dentistry still depends on skilled people. By Shane Conroy
Many dental laboratories were leading digital transformation in dentistry long before scanners, chairside printers and AI design tools became common discussion points in general practice.
They invested in CAD/CAM systems, design software, milling technology, and 3D printing. They changed production workflows, retrained staff, and found new ways to communicate with dentists.
That shift has changed the kind of value labs provide, and the role lab technicians will play in the future of dentistry. Dr Ahmad Al-Hassiny is witnessing that evolution from several positions at once.
As founder and director of the Institute of Digital Dentistry (iDD), and a global educator in intraoral scanning, CAD/CAM and 3D printing, he teaches dentists and technicians how to evaluate, adopt, and use digital technologies in practice.
He is also a full-time private dentist in Wellington, NZ, and through his family’s dental business is involved in a network of practices with more than 40 treatment rooms, a full-service digital laboratory, and a dental distribution company that supplies equipment and materials.
“I still work five days a week in the clinic,” he says. “That’s important to me because it keeps me connected to what dentists are actually dealing with every day.
“At the same time, through iDD, our lab, and the wider business, I get to see what’s happening across different parts of the profession.”
People sometimes assume that once you have the digital tools, the technician becomes less important. In reality, the opposite is often true. Someone still has to understand the case, evaluate the data, make design decisions, and ensure the final result is clinically acceptable.
Dr Ahmad Al-Hassiny, founder, Institute of Digital Dentistry
In Dr Al-Hassiny’s view, as scanners, CAD/CAM systems, 3D printing and AI become more common across dentistry, the opportunity for labs lies in their technical expertise. “You still need a technician,” he says. “People sometimes assume that once you have the digital tools, the technician becomes less important. In reality, the opposite is often true. Someone still has to understand the case, evaluate the data, make design decisions, and ensure the final result is clinically acceptable. Our lab employs six technicians, and their expertise is critical to what we do every day.”
Built from the ground up
Dr Al-Hassiny was born in Baghdad, Iraq, into a dental family. Both of his parents were dentists. They met at university, left Iraq after his birth and eventually settled in New Zealand. The family arrived as skilled migrants, but that did not make the move simple.
“For the first five years in New Zealand, my dad worked as a pizza delivery guy and a grocery shop worker,” he says. “Then he re-registered and started his first practice.”
As a child, Dr Al-Hassiny helped his father and brother turn a rough commercial building into a dental clinic. They pulled down walls, laid tiles…
“When you spend your weekends helping build something from the ground up, you learn that progress comes from effort,” he says. “Those experiences stayed with me and shaped the way I approach dentistry and business today.”
After graduating from the University of Otago with first class honours in 2015, Dr Al-Hassiny joined his father in private practice. He says his father was an advanced clinician, an early adopter, and a strong mentor. By the time Dr Al-Hassiny entered the practice, they had already adopted digital scanning. “Most people in New Zealand had never even seen a scanner at that time,” he recalls. “It was still very early days for digital dentistry here, and a lot of dentists were curious about the technology but had very little hands-on experience with it.”
But his father didn’t view technology as a shortcut. He believed tools only mattered if people were trained to use them to improve patient outcomes.
“Mentorship is key. Training is key,” Dr Al-Hassiny says. “You can buy the latest piece of equipment, but none of it matters if you do not understand how to use it properly. Technology is important, but education is what allows you to get the most out of it.”
Cutting through the noise
Dr Al-Hassiny started iDD in 2017 in response to a gap he saw in the way dentists were learning about emerging technology. Early scanners had promise to improve patient comfort and reduce reliance on conventional impressions, but they also had limitations.
The problem was the information around the products. Sales reps and paid speakers often presented individual systems as definitive answers. However, Dr Al-Hassiny felt the clinical reality was often more complicated. “Despite what dentists were being told, there was no universally best product,” he says.
As a result, Dr Al-Hassiny believed dentists were being asked to make large investment decisions without clear, practical, and independent information. Labs then had to deal with the consequences, including poor scans, unrealistic expectations, and confused digital communication.
So Dr Al-Hassiny started iDD as a simple blog where he shared practical experience, particularly around scanner reviews. The blog quickly gained traction because it came from independent, real-world use without a sales motive.
Today, iDD reaches dental professionals in almost every country in the world through a multi-channel platform that includes a website with over 152,000 monthly views, a weekly newsletter with more than 60,000 subscribers, and social media audiences.
This global reach has established iDD as one of the most influential independent voices in digital dentistry, delivering trusted education, reviews, news, and insights to clinicians worldwide.
The opportunity for labs
Dr Al-Hassiny does not accept the idea that digital dentistry is a fatal threat to laboratories. In fact, his own business points in the opposite direction.
You can buy the latest piece of equipment, but none of it matters if you do not understand how to use it properly. The people around you, the people who teach you and help you develop your skills, are what make the biggest difference.
Dr Ahmad Al-Hassiny, founder, Institute of Digital Dentistry
As the family practice grew, their digital work also grew. He and his father spent long hours after work learning CAD and smile design, and completing digital wax-ups. As more cases moved into digital workflows, the workload reached a practical limit and they faced a decision. They could outsource more of that work, or they could build the technical capacity to manage a larger share of it within the business. So they built a lab.
iDD Lab began as a small in-house set-up and developed into a larger digital laboratory that now supports internal and external work. It grew because digital workflows created more demand for technical support, not less.
“A lot of people seem to think digital dentistry and CAD/CAM dentists are out there trying to kill the labs,” he says. “There’s nothing further from the truth.”
In his view, the opportunity for labs sits in the work that requires judgement and specialisation: cosmetics, dentures, digital design, smile design, full-mouth cases, and complex problem-solving.
At the same time, Dr Al-Hassiny believes AI will reduce repetitive design work and allow technicians to spend more time checking outputs, refining designs, and managing complex cases.
“AI tools are not going to replace humans,” he says. “You still need a human to check off that AI crown design. You still need someone who understands occlusion, aesthetics, materials and whether the restoration is actually appropriate for that patient. AI can generate a design, but it can’t take responsibility for the final outcome.”
Labs have already done much of the hard work of adoption, and Dr Al-Hassiny firmly believes the next phase will reward the technicians and businesses that keep building skill around the technology. “The value of labs has not disappeared,” he concludes. “It has moved toward the people who know what to do with the tools.”
