In 1974, research performed by Dr. Robert Isaacson and his orthodontic graduate student, Bruce Hultgren, identified a need to integrate the disciplines of engineering with dentistry. The professor had an NIH grant to study jaw motion in collaboration with the engineering faculty. As a spin-off of this project, Dr. Hultgren became involved with the engineering personnel and developed a program to show detailed jaw motion. Bruce had a biomedical challenge—find a way to measure the dynamic growth of teeth and jaw. Bruce Hultgren, with his mathematical interest and background, found a mathematical expression of motion dynamics applied to teeth. This mathematical 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 Corporation was incorporated to explore the business possibilities of 3-D digital full mouth models, emodels® that incorporated accurate occlusion and several patents were applied for. GeoDigm developed a proprietary laser scanning technology to capture and digitize dental models. The eModel business was born from this initial development and has been helping orthodontists throughout the country plan treatments and archive patient records ever since.
In 2003 GeoDigm Corporation entered the dental restoration market via acquisition and began to explore the opportunities for digital technology 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 all over the U.S. who have discovered how our restorations make their practices more efficient and profitable.
