By Alison Werner
The American Affiliation of Orthodontists (AAO) has named Zeeno Sterile and Celebrace because the winners of the 2026 Ortho Innovator Award. The award, a part of the AAO’s Innovation & Transformation Fund, acknowledges corporations growing groundbreaking applied sciences that deal with key challenges in scientific and follow administration workflows.
This 12 months’s winners deal with automating traditionally handbook processes—instrument sterilization and bracket placement—to enhance effectivity, security, and predictability. As well as, three honorable mentions had been awarded to the Casper Class II Corrector, the Owen Tripod Splint, and a biodegradable 3D printing resin, every tackling distinct challenges in affected person care and follow sustainability.
Winner: Zeeno Sterile—Automating the Sterilization Workflow
For many years, the sterilization space has remained some of the handbook, labor-intensive, and high-risk components of an orthodontic follow. Zeeno Robotics, co-founded by Marc Lemchen, DMD, Todd Blankenbecler, and Chester Wang, goals to vary that with Zeeno Sterile, a completely automated, robotic system designed to deal with all the instrument sterilization course of.
The Zeeno Sterile unit is designed to handle the workflow from begin to end. A employees member locations used instrument cassettes into an enter slot, and the system takes over—cleansing, wrapping, sterilizing in one in all its twin autoclaves, and inserting the completed, sterile cassettes on a shelf, prepared to be used. The method is designed to maintain tempo with a busy follow, with the bottom mannequin that includes two sterilizing items that may every maintain six cassettes for a 30-minute sterilization cycle.
The system addresses a number of vital points dealing with practices at present, most notably staffing shortages. “Each orthodontist and dentist tells you it’s so exhausting to get employees now,” Lemchen says. “This addresses that a part of our drawback. It additionally makes us much less depending on individuals exhibiting as much as work each morning.”
By automating the method, Zeeno Sterile additionally introduces a degree of documentation and consistency that’s tough to realize manually. The system screens and logs every cycle, guaranteeing that temperature and time necessities are met and documented. “Now we have to have the ability to entry that and monitor it,” Lemchen explains. “We are able to doc profitable sterilization, so we don’t have a day that goes by that, oh, we thought we sterilized the whole lot.”
Lemchen additionally sees the know-how as a strong follow differentiator. In an period the place sufferers affiliate know-how with a better high quality of care, seen innovation can have a big influence. “Seen know-how is the wow issue,” he says. “It’s the factor that makes the mother or father go residence and say, ‘I took Danny to the orthodontist, you wouldn’t consider they’re utilizing robots now.’ Individuals affiliate know-how with high quality of care, and that is one other manner of differentiating your follow.”
Winner: Celebrace—A Absolutely Digital, AI-Powered Customized Metallic Braces System
The second winner, Celebrace, brings a completely digital workflow to mounted home equipment with its AI-powered system for creating 3D-printed customized steel brackets. Developed by orthodontist Mehdi Peikar, DDS, PhD, MS, the system strikes past the one-size-fits-all prescriptions of conventional bracket techniques.
The Celebrace workflow begins with an intraoral scan—and an optionally available CBCT—to generate a digital therapy plan. Upon approval, the software program reverse-engineers the perfect tip and torque for every tooth.
Translating these digital plans into steel required Celebrace to develop a extremely advanced, proprietary 3D printing technique. Whereas customized ceramic brackets exist, Peikar centered on steel as a result of it stays the trade’s overwhelming choice. Clinically, he additionally prefers it as a result of “the wings don’t break” and the “friction is decrease.” Moreover, in contrast to conventional injection-molded inventory brackets, which inherently have barely divergent slots, 3D printing creates completely parallel slot partitions for extremely correct wire expression. Docs may even request customized slot sizes, comparable to a bi-dimensional setup.
This degree of producing customization provides a number of scientific benefits, primarily by eliminating the inherent inefficiencies of inventory brackets. As a result of the 3D-printed bases might be made variably thick or skinny, medical doctors can place brackets in excessive positions—comparable to working round extreme crowding or inserting them greater for aesthetics—with out altering the deliberate torque. Because of this, therapy proceeds rather more instantly, decreasing the necessity for handbook wire bending and mid-treatment bracket repositioning.
Lastly, follow effectivity is enhanced by delivering the customized brackets in 3D-printed oblique bonding (IDB) trays, permitting assistants to put them with precision. In the end, Peikar sees this digital evolution as a solution to give orthodontists full management over their scientific outcomes. “The entire objective right here is we don’t drop off medical doctors a couple of blocks from their vacation spot,” he says. “We drop them off as shut as attainable to what they pictured from the start of the journey.”
Honorable Mentions
Three different improvements acquired honorable mentions for his or her distinctive contributions to orthodontic care and follow administration.
Casper Class II Corrector: Developed by Neil Warshawsky, DDS, MS, the Casper Class II Corrector is a customized, 3D-printed mounted equipment designed to deal with each the anteroposterior and vertical dimensions of Class II malocclusions. Impressed by the mechanics of the temporomandibular joint, the equipment guides mandibular progress with a consolation and predictability that Warshawsky felt was lacking from conventional home equipment just like the Herbst. “All people talks about Class II as an AP drawback. I received information for you. Class II is a vertical drawback as properly,” he says. The system leverages a completely digital workflow and has been utilized in a variety of instances, from younger youngsters to adults with sleep apnea.
Owen Tripod Splint: Brandon Owen, DDS, MS, acquired recognition for the Owen Tripod Splint, a novel resolution for TMD administration. The 3D-printed, two-piece equipment was designed to offer the security of a full-coverage splint with the effectivity of easier, anterior-only deprogrammers. “I requested myself, can I work out a solution to do one thing that’s fast and straightforward to make use of… however that offers the safety of the total protection splint,” Owen explains. The result’s a system that dramatically reduces adjustment time, permitting orthodontists to combine TMJ therapy profitably into their common schedule as an alternative of treating it as a “follow killer.”
Biodegradable 3D Printing Resin: Addressing the rising drawback of plastic waste in orthodontics, Julianna Parizotto, DDS, MSc, PhD, developed Fab-to-Fry, a biodegradable 3D printing resin for orthodontic fashions created from upcycled waste cooking oil. The challenge stemmed from her concern over the 1000’s of non-recyclable printed fashions that find yourself in landfills. “What actually made it particular for me was creating the fabric that really contributes to the round economic system,” she says. The solvent-free resin has mechanical properties corresponding to conventional resins, providing a sustainable different for fabricating aligner fashions with out compromising scientific high quality. OP
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Alison Werner is chief editor of Orthodontic Merchandise.
