In 1974 research performed by Dr. Robert Isaacson and his then orthodontic graduate student Dr. Bruce Hultgren identified a need to integrate the disciplines of engineering with dentistry. Isaacson used an NIH (National Institutes of Health) grant to study jaw motion in collaboration with the engineering faculty at the University of Minnesota. As a spin-off of this project Dr. Hultgren also became involved with the engineering personnel and developed a program that showed detailed jaw motion. Hultgren was faced with a biomedical challenge: to find a way to measure the dynamic growth of teeth and jaw. Utilizing his interest in mathematics combined with his dental background he discovered a mathematical expression of motion dynamics applied to teeth. This expression, first captured manually, was eventually captured in software. By 1984 the mathematical model was demonstrated on a desktop computer and experimentation began with 3-D graphic manipulation of a limited model.
In 1994 Dr. Hultgren became aware of a laser scanning technique that acquired surface data points. In 1996 GeoDigm was incorporated to explore the benefits to dental professsionals when using 3-D digital full mouth models. GeoDigm Corporation developed a proprietary laser scanning technique that would accurately digitize dental models, now known as emodels®, which has since become the standard in helping orthodontists throughout the country plan patient treatments and archive patient records.
In 2003 GeoDigm Corporation entered the dental restoration market via acquisition and began to explore digitally driven quality improvements in dental restorations. Leveraging decades of laboratory experience, GeoDigm developed proprietary restoration software, digital fabrication techniques and quality control processes to ensure that high-quality crown and bridge restorations were consistently produced in our ICON Advanced Process Laboratories.
Today GeoDigm produces almost 20% of the crowns in Minnesota and has customers throughout the U.S. who have discovered how our restorations make their practices more efficient and profitable.
