Author: ali

  • Microsoft 3D Builder

    For years, Microsoft 3D Builder has been one of my favorite hidden gems for working with dental 3D files. It’s simple, fast, and does exactly what most clinicians need — without the bloat of heavy CAD software.

    Unfortunately, it seems that Microsoft 3D Builder has quietly disappeared from the Microsoft Store in several regions. Whether it’s being deprecated or just hidden, many users can no longer find it through the official search.

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  • Shade Picker App

    Shade selection has always been one of the most deceptively difficult tasks in restorative dentistry.

    Even with high-end cameras, good lighting, and experience, matching a tooth to a shade guide is still influenced by:

    • Ambient light conditions
    • Camera auto-adjustments
    • Surface reflections
    • Regional color variation across the tooth
    • Human perception bias

    What if we approached shade selection not as a “pick the closest tab” problem — but as a structured color comparison problem grounded in color science?

    That’s the idea behind Shade Master.


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  • TS‑LWW Sync: A Pragmatic Offline‑First Synchronization Algorithm

    Modern applications live in a messy world.

    Users go offline. Networks lie. Devices crash. Two people edit the same record at the same time. Files are uploaded halfway and then abandoned. Yet expectations are brutal: the app must feel instant, never lose data, and always recover.

    This post describes TS‑LWW Sync (Timestamped Last‑Writer‑Wins Sync), a synchronization algorithm designed for real-world CRUD applications — especially offline‑first systems like a dental clinic CRM (Apexo) — where correctness, speed, and simplicity matter more than academic perfection.

    The goal of TS‑LWW Sync is not to be clever.
    The goal is to be reliable, fast, cheap, and understandable.

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  • Interproximal Reduction in Orthodontics

    To  get space in orthodontic cases, you either follow one or more of the following paths:

    1. Expansion
    2. Extraction
    3. Interproximal reduction

    While interproximal reduction is not the favorite approach for many dentists, since it would take out precious natural enamel, it is still less aggressive than extraction and many patients favors it more than they do for extraction.

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