Acquired by 3M Brontes is changing the way dentists treat their patients by enabling practitioners to perform ImpressionFreeTM dentistry. Brontes’ 3D intraoral imaging technology can quickly and painlessly scan both arches of the mouth, thereby replacing the antiquated dental impression process. Over 50 million dental impressions are performed in the U.S. each year for the production of almost all dental prosthetics and appliances, including crowns, bridges, implants, braces, aligners and retainers. The average dentist takes several impressions each day in spite of the costly, time consuming, inconsistent, and unpleasant process. Digital tools for production have been available to the dental industry for many years, but all of these tools start with the same problematic physical input – the dental impression. Brontes enables a long overdue digital revolution by taking 3D digital data directly from the patient’s mouth and removing the barriers to digital production. Brontes Technologies, Inc. was founded in 2003 based on the research of Dr. János Rohály, Professor Douglas Hart and two graduate students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Eric Paley and Micah Rosenbloom. In October 2006 Brontes Technologies was acquired by 3M