Inman Orthodontic Laboratories Inc

24/01/2026

I am in the HABIT of featuring printed metal in my posts.

IMHO Tongue or Thumb appliances are the perfect example of why printed metal appliances are superior. First is the fact that you can design them digitally using both arches to find the perfect placement of the crib. Secondly the appliance is printed as one solid piece with no weak areas, no solder joints to discolor or break down. If you are an orthodontist or Pediatric dentist and you are resistant to printed appliances, let's talk. Email or PM me, I will fabricate you two appliances for the same patient, one with bands and one printed, I will only charge you for one. This way if you don't LOVE the printed appliance you can seat the old school banded appliance. Yes, I will lose money but I have so much confidence you will switch to printed appliances it will be worth it.

18/01/2026

Sorry for the silence but we have been crazy busy. Dr. Neil from Denck Ortho asked us to host a meeting to share our experience with the Denck wire bending machine and software. The amazing Cade Tippet flew in and him and Jesse gave everyone one on one "hands On" training. We had a great BBQ at my house the first night then the brilliant Dr. Neil showed us MARPE planning software the 2nd day. Thank you to all that attended and thank you all for sharing. Truly my favorite moments of the 2 days was when people dropped their guard, bared their souls and spoke honestly about their successes and challenges. God, I love this profession and will miss it tremendously!

08/01/2026

I am a TAD bit happy to feature this expander today. MARPE Expanders are starting to become more requested at our laboratory. We are learning new software to help us place the receivers in the most ideal positions.

06/01/2026

Happy New Year!
We will start the New Year with more printed metal because I know you wanted more LOL.

Jesse designed this lower FLEA a little different. He added a wing or bonding pad to the Es and Jeff welded lingual extensions from the 6s to the Cs. The orthodontist loved this so much she asked that all her FLEAs be designed as this from now on.

We will be increasing our posts in 2026, we hope you enjoy them and follow us. If there is anything you are interested in us showing, just ask.

26/12/2025

Keles Keyless Expanders

NO MORE KEYS!

and I snuck in a pic of some of the team enjoying a Year End Meal

18/12/2025

SPLINTS-R-US

I like to tell this story because I feel it was a true victory for the lab and myself. Years ago our splint department was very busy but our remakes were unacceptable. After looking at the problem for months and months I decided we should move to Printed Digitally Designed Splints. I was met with considerable pushback, the splint team was not quiet regarding their feelings to my decision. We had tried years before and failed miserably with Digitally Designed Milled Splints so I understood their concern. Also in all our memories was the short period of time we printed splints on an Envisiontec E1. We were given the wrong manufacturing protocol and sold the wrong curing unit. The splints literally fell apart in the patient's mouth.

Anyway..back to the story. So not wanting to do the same thing over and over, expecting a different outcome we went all in on Printed Digital Splints, we branded ours Inman Digital Splint or IDS. This time we were printing with KeyStone KeySplint Soft material and outsourced the printing to a lab with a Carbon Printer. This produced a beautiful splint that fit perfectly.

The accounts that had been a victim of the E1 disaster refused to try our new splints, we hooked them up with a quality lab owner with mad skills who would give them what they wanted. However the result was the loss of about 80% of our splint business. Was the splint team right, had I lost my mind in going all digital? In retrospect I probably should have continued to make hand poured acrylic splints and slowly introduced the accounts to the IDS. However remakes make me crazy and our acrylic splints were losing the lab real money.

Fast forward: These pics are yesterdays outgoing splints. The IDS is our fastest growing product with a super low amount of remakes. They are profitable for the lab and our customers and their patient's are receiving a better product. We were able to bring the printing In-House using a new Heygears 3D Printer reducing our turnaround times. The quality of the IDSs printed on the Heygears printer using the KeySoft material exceeds even that of the Carbon / KeySoft splints.

Many of the accounts that refused the IDS have come back and love the digital splints now. An interesting fact is that 52% of splints produced by orthodontic labs are 3D Printed. This is according to the LMT 2025 State of the Industry Survey Report.

I am sorry this was such a long post, I don't know if we will be posting anything in the next two weeks. I want to wish all of you Happy Holidays, please enjoy your family and friends, please be happy and safe.

12/12/2025

We still receive stone models and impressions. We digitize them using our 3 Shape Scanner and process the appliances. Jesse always wants us to be "the easy lab to work with" and I agree. We are not too small to invest in the newest technology, we are not too big to give you our personal attention. You can almost always reach one of us at any time. Family owned and operated, going on 50 years of service to the dental community!

06/12/2025

This one is for you Orthodontic Technicians. Jesse gave a podcast regarding the design software he uses for our Printed Metal appliances. You can view it by clicking the link:

In this episode, Cade is joined by Jesse Inman of Inman Orthodontic Laboratory along with 3DNA Dental co-founders Paul Wilkins and Mike Gordon to explore how...

05/12/2025

All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth!!

Cases with pontics are flooding in and our Lab Manager is doing a spectacular job setting teeth. The entire team is doing a great job finishing up and polishing the appliances. So I guess I am now over doing the cosmetic stuff? I can just hear you...."Not another case with teeth" LOL

27/11/2025

A few cases from this week that are a little unique. I want to thank our amazing team for their great work and wish them and all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving.

20/11/2025

This is an appliance that was developed at our lab to close diastemas. It gathers the centrals and laterals toward the midline. Permanent retention is accomplished by direct cosmetic bonding to close the residual space distal to the laterals after the space is closed. We use a traction screw but you can use a modified acrylic expansion screw if you modify it (too much work IMO) They also make a screw I show in the last picture to close diastemas but I could not find a pic of it in an appliance.

15/11/2025

We fabricate a ton of Clears with pontics, I think mostly for implant cases. Our Super Hero Superman Sidnei puts a lot of love into ours. We as most orthodontic laboratories offers these appliances at extremely reasonable fees. Maybe all of us orthodontic labs needs to charge more for these? Anyway I am proud of our cosmetic work as I am all of our work!