Files & patient data · for U.S. labs & clinics
How your files travel, and what happens to patient data.
Cases arrive through an encrypted upload link with no patient identifiers in the file names, are opened by one person, and are kept only as long as you say.
The short version
A case is a CBCT, a set of scans and a prescription. The design work never needs a patient name, a date of birth, a chart number or an address, so the less of that leaves your building the better.
Renaming the file does not remove any of it. The identifiers live inside the DICOM itself — PatientName, PatientID, PatientBirthDate, StudyDate, the referring physician and your own institution name are all header tags and they survive any rename, and a large field-of-view CBCT reconstructs a recognisable face, which HIPAA counts as an identifier in its own right. Use your CBCT software's anonymise or de-identify export, not the Finder.
Treat every CBCT you send as protected health information unless your own compliance process has determined otherwise under 45 CFR 164.514(b). That determination is yours to make, not a vendor's. If your policy requires a signed agreement before the first upload, send me the one you use and we put the terms you need in writing before anything is sent.
Either way, files travel one route: an encrypted upload link. Not as an email attachment, not over WhatsApp, not through a consumer file-sharing account. WhatsApp is fine for a question about a case; it is not a channel for the case itself.
One more thing your compliance officer will ask before anything else: the files are transmitted to and worked on in Aruba, outside the United States. If your own client contracts prohibit processing outside the U.S., tell me before the first case.
What to send, and what never to send
Send
- CBCT as DICOM, exported through your software's anonymise function where you have one
- Intraoral or model scans as STL
- The prescription: implant system, kit, material, shade, the prosthetic goal
- A case reference of your own so you can match it back
Never send
- Identifiers left inside the DICOM header when your software can strip them
- Chart or account numbers written into the prescription
- Identifiable photographs unless you have decided they are needed
- Anything by email attachment, over WhatsApp, or through a consumer file-sharing account
What is true, and what is not claimed
One person is the point, and here is the other half of that
One designer is why the turnaround and the revisions can be promised the way they are. It is also a single point of failure, so it is answered rather than hidden: I accept only the volume I can hold, and I say so before I take a case rather than after. If anything on my side puts a stated date at risk, you hear it the same day.
One person opens the file
The case is received, planned, designed and reviewed by Nicolás Petersen. There is no subcontractor, no offshore team and no shared ticket queue, so the list of people who can open your file is one name long.
No HIPAA claim is made here
This site claims no HIPAA compliance and publishes no standing Business Associate Agreement, because claiming either would be the wrong answer to give a compliance officer. Whether an agreement is needed is your determination, not mine. Send me the one your practice uses and the terms are agreed in writing before the first upload.
The regulatory responsibility stays with you
The deliverable is a design file. Manufacturing, materials, printing and every regulatory obligation stay with your laboratory or clinic, exactly as they would for a design your own technician produced.
Retention, stated once and the same everywhere
Files are kept for the life of the case and its revisions, then deleted — the same policy published on the send-a-case page, not a second one written for this page. Tell me a shorter schedule before the first case and yours replaces it. Ask for a case to be removed at any point and it is removed.
What this website itself collects
Separate from case files, and much smaller. The send-a-case form asks for a name, an email address, the kind of work and a description of the case; that is all it collects and it is used to answer you. Do not put patient identifiers in that box.
The site runs Google Analytics 4 (measurement ID G-QXEGBN0FS7) for page and traffic counts, and the send-a-case page loads a chat assistant from site-agent-8dm.pages.dev. Both see only what you type into them. Neither is a route for patient files: those go through the encrypted upload link and nowhere else. No advertising cookies, no advertising pixel, and nothing collected here is sold or shared with a data broker.
Formal written terms and a full privacy notice are being drawn up; until they are published, ask and you get the answer in writing.
Questions a compliance officer asks
Do you sign a Business Associate Agreement?
There is no standing BAA published here, and claiming HIPAA compliance would be the wrong answer to give a compliance officer. Send me the agreement your practice uses and the terms are agreed in writing before the first upload. What I will not do is tell you an agreement is unnecessary: whether one is required follows from your own determination under 45 CFR 164.514(b), and it is not a vendor's call.
Is a renamed DICOM de-identified?
No, and this is the mistake worth catching before it costs you something. A rename changes the file name; PatientName, PatientID, PatientBirthDate, StudyDate, the referring physician and your institution name sit inside the DICOM header and open in any free viewer. A large field-of-view scan also reconstructs a recognisable face. Use your CBCT software's anonymise export, and if the field of view includes the face, tell me so we agree how it is handled.
Where are the files stored, and for how long?
On the working machine used for the design, reached through the encrypted upload link. There is no cloud drive shared with other clients and no marketing use of any case. The upload service holds its own copy until it is purged. Files are kept for the life of the case and its revisions, then deleted; tell me a shorter schedule before the first case and yours replaces it.
Does the data leave the United States?
Yes. Nicolás Petersen works in Aruba, so your files are transmitted and processed outside the United States. Several U.S. laboratory client contracts prohibit offshore processing outright. If yours does, say so before the first case rather than after.
Who else can see the case?
Nobody. One designer receives it, plans it and designs it. Work is not passed to a farm, a partner studio or a contractor, which is also why the turnaround and the revisions can be promised the way they are.
Can a case be used as a portfolio example?
Not without your explicit permission, per case. Nothing is published, posted or shown with your laboratory's name or a patient's identity attached unless you have said yes to that specific case.
Is this a U.S. company?
No. NB Digital Dentistry is Nicolás Petersen, a digital dentistry designer based in Aruba, working remotely for laboratories and clinics in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. Aruba is on Atlantic time, so the working day overlaps the U.S. Eastern business day.
You approve the design before you pay.
The first case is free — one implant plan and guide of up to two implants for a clinic, or three restorative units for a laboratory, one per practice. Judge the files on your own equipment first.
Send your first case free