Case Study: Solea (Convergent Dental) achieves FDA approval and award‑winning, sub‑two‑year development with SOLIDWORKS

Innovating an award-winning dental laser with solidworks solutions

Solea set out to deliver the first CO2 dental laser approved by the U.S. FDA for hard and soft tissue ablation in under two years—a fast timeline for a medical device—while coordinating a cross‑functional team that included Convergent Dental and Tischler Resources. To meet this challenge the team adopted SolidWorks design tools and SolidWorks Enterprise PDM to provide a common, collaborative development platform.

Using SolidWorks software and Enterprise PDM, the team integrated mechanical, surfacing, handpiece, pneumatic and electrical designs, used eDrawings for design sharing, and automated ECO workflows to control revisions. SolidWorks enabled FDA approval in less than two years, helped the Solea win the 2014 Medical Design Excellence Gold Award, supported a five‑person collaborative team, and accelerated engineering change processes—delivering a virtually pain‑free, needle‑free dental solution with measurable time‑to‑market and process improvements.

Solea

Neil Tischler

Owner