dental 3D printer

Once again, we have witnessed some impressive monumental shifts and changes in the industry of 3D printing. Most of the well-known vendors are now gradually improving their 3D printer to cater to different users in us usability and reliability here. Compared to a few years ago, now 3D printing has become more accessible and cost-effective to do.

Different industries are now utilizing these machines to offer better quality services to their customers, and one of the major initiatives is the global dental industries. The widespread proliferation of 3D printer for dental and CAM or CAD treatment planning software has contributed significantly to the improved patient experience.

In general, digital dentistry consists of these two innovations as they are used for labs and clinics. But after the recent development, the experts have argued that a dental 3d printer can enhance the paradigm and eliminate the loops by providing affordable fabrication.

Why is dental 3D printing different?

A dental 3d printer utilizes pre-define and a specific use case. It is used to print different types of functional dental appliances, for example, monolithic dentures, surgical guides or nightguards This can be a significant difference between the way hospitals or clinics utilizes advanced 3D printers and the way they are utilized in other industries; FDA-approved products, dentists produce final, models or just prototypes. There are many different types of desktop 3D printers available in the market that can fabricate well-designed and good-looking parts.

Talking about the FDM 3D printers, these are designed for industrial use, and they are not suitable for producing highly detailed products. For this, you can use LCD 3D printing. However, how to choose the right one for you? Here, you will get to know all the things that will help you make the right decision.

3D printer for dental has contributed significantly to improved dentistry processes, a pool of talent from different backgrounds, breakthrough technologies, and some new investment sources. However, despite its widespread potential and massive applications, 3D printing is still considered an emerging technology in the dental sector.

For example, hospitals with a tooth 3d printer are limited to printing dental models, not real dentures. However, the models will play a crucial role in helping dentists plan and produce accurate interventions and printing dentures themselves. Besides, dentists from across the will require a printer that can print mental.

Introduced in 1981, 3D printing technology is now advancing rapidly with various types of printing techniques currently used to print using waxes, metals, resins, plastic and more. Even though the actual technology used to produce 3D parts may vary from one system to another, however, at their core, they all process a liquid or filaments by fusing, polymerizing or binding them into a precise shape.

3D printing is well-established in the dental industry with some early uses covering 3D printed wax for substructure casting. Now, dental 3D printing is used in both lab and clinical settings to complete different types of task covering, 3D printed surgical guides, orthodontic aligners, models, restorations and more.

This is an excellent fit for the dentistry industry as it lets you enjoy rapid productions of different customer parts. If compared, you will find that this is the most efficient process and consume much less material than the subtractive manufacturing, for example, CNC milling. With the workflow that can go from digital impression to digital design to the 3D printed finished part. This is entirely accurate than the alternate manufacturing that requires multiple steps. With this, you will enjoy a better ROI.

5 major ways 3D printing has dramatically redefined that the global dental industry

1. Low-cost mass customization

While the dental industry has always required an excellent customization level, this industry relied on manual methods to develop custom appliances. Today, modern technology has enabled mass customization in an automated and consistent, utilizing less labour and lower costs. Every person has a unique dentition, the pattern of arrangement and development of teeth.

Dental indications must, therefore, developed to match each patient’s anatomy. Utilizing traditional workflows, the final quality of the product is dependent on the skills of the maker. Achieving a higher level of consistent and quality dental products with this can be very difficult and expensive.

With dental printer, you can produce highly accurate crown and bridge models, orthodontic models, castable and pressable restorations, surgical guides, retainers, aligners, biocompatible dental products, such as dentures and splints. 3D printing simplifies the workflow, reduce the space for errors and the amount of labour required.

2. Significantly disrupting orthodontics with clear aligners

Orthodontics is a unique dental speciality has been in use since the traditional metal wired braces. Removable aligners are offering an appealing alternative and are widely used to treat patients. Clear aligners can be developed without digital technologies. Their manufacturing process is a perfect combination of different digital workflows. The dentist first carefully captures the impression of the dentition with an advanced 3D intraoral scanner.

The 3D model provides a fundamental to correctly plan the progressive stages between the current and the patient’s position. Every stage is 3D printed, and aligners are created using the 3D printed moulds. There are smaller format desktop 3D printers; you can create moulds for different types of thermoformed appliances. This has opened up a lot of opportunities.

3. Digital implantology

It has been proved that 3D printing can perfectly augment multiple complex procedures. CBCT, surgical guides and placement planning have turned out to be the new standards of care in the sector of implantology. With this, the accuracy of the implant during the surgery will be guaranteed. There will no risk about the failure of surgical complication. As an example, you can consider the surgical guides.

To construct a guide, the implantologists take the data of the patient’s anatomy and dentition using a CBCT. Based on the collected data, the practitioners utilize CAD software to come up with a highly accurate treatment and use a dental 3d printer to produce dental guides that can be used in conducting surgery.

Earlier, milling or 3D printing through the industrial 3D printers were used to manufacturing surgical guides. However, due to the expensive and complex machinery involved, the guides were very costly. However, desktop and LCD 3D printing have brought down the cost by a fact of 10x.

4. Digital dentures

Instead of using labour-intensive and time-consuming process, dentists are now using 3D printing for 3d printing partial dentures. These are considered as the latest innovation in the field of digital dentistry. Denture manufacturing through 3D printing includes minimal step, resulting in a consistent workflow, and you will get a superior quality product.

On the other hand, digital dentures’ design is also shareable, modifiable, shareable and can be crafted within a few hours. It has been predicted that digital dentures will supplement or replace the traditional method with 50 million dentures manufactured every year across the world.

5. A significant level of the patient experience

This is the industry where you should take good care of your patients by offering the best services. Diagnostic wax-ups, highly detailed replicas, and virtual treatment planning can help patients get the best care and easily understand their treatment, lowering the anxiety level. When there are consistent and precise treatments, the patients will be less likely to revisit you for the same problem.

6. In-house production

While industrial FDM 3D printers handle high-volume productions, desktop LCD 3D printers are now bringing on-demand manufacturing to the clinic. Where industrial 3D printing machines have a high upfront cost and maintenance requirements, LCD 3D printers come at a lower price and a smaller footprint.

1.1, What is the original production process of dental

A denture or false teeth are removable or fixed replacements for your teeth. When the tooth and the roots have been damaged badly, and you can’t repair it, you will have to go for tooth replacement. While modern 3D printing has made the dental product process a lot easier, you might be wondering about the original process. Well, you will get to know about this. Before that, let’s have a look at the history of this.

History of dental replacements

Different types of materials have been utilized to replace lost teeth. The earliest replacement materials were animal teeth and pieces. As per a report, two such false teeth were discovered wrapped in gold. Artificial teeth have been fashioned from different natural substances, for example, platinum, porcelain, ivory and more.

Theses crude prototypes were forged and carved using hand to mimic the appearance and the functionality of natural teeth. The early denture workmanship can be exemplified by famous wooden teeth of George Washington.

Modern technology has offered massive advances in terms of material used to make artificial teeth. Besides, there are improved techniques for fixing then in the mouth. Lightweight metal alloys and high-quality synthetic plastic resins have made tooth replacements quite durable, and they look really natural.

The original dental production process

For this you will need to arrange some supplies like alginate impression material, measuring containers, a mouth tray and water. After getting all these things, you need to mix alginate material with water to create a thick paste. Prefer to get quick set alginate to get the best result. After creating the thick paste, put the paste on the mouth tray.

Now, put the tray in your mouth. While doing this, don’t let your teeth to touch your tray. It is advisable to bite straight down into the alginate. Besides, make sure your upper lip is over the mouth tray so that you can get perfect gum coverage. After a few minutes, it will be hard and then remove the tray. You will get a perfectly nice impression right on the alginate solution.

Now, you need to create a thick paste using hydrocal white plaster or ultracal plaster. You can also use dental stones, and they are available in different types of colours. Hydrocal works great as the material is easy to repair. For example, if there are any air bubbles or something, you can easily chip it away. But with stone, you can find the repairing task quite challenging.

Take the powder into a glass and add water to create a pancake batter consistency. Once done, put it into the teeth mould and let the liquid paste to settle. It will become hard, and then you can remove it from the teeth mould. Now, using a Drywall Rasp, you can clean the extra edges to give it a perfect shape. That’s it.

1.2, What processes can 3d printers replace?

If you look at the above-mentioned process, you will find it very time consuming and there is no guarantee that you will get an accurate result. Now, let’s have a look at how 3d printing technology in dentistry is helping in this. First of all, it has highly simplified the process of dental production.

You don’t have to put the mouth tray inside the mouth to get the teeth impression. Now, you can just 3D scan the teeth using any digital scanner, and you can get the complete digital impression of the teeth within a few minutes. Such devices are also called dental scanners. They capture a high-definition and detailed optical impression of the inaccessible and intricate spots located inside the oral cavity.

These machines are available in the lab an intraoral version and are quite easy to use. One of the major importance is the software you will use to capture data or image, suggest treatment, and create a perfect model for 3D printing. The most distinguishing features of a dental 3D scanner are the speed at which it scans, the quality and quantity of the data it obtains and the AI capability it shows in discarding or collecting data.

Once the data is obtained, you can edit the digital image data to attain the exact shape using the CAD software tool. One of the best software is TinkerCAD. If you are using 3D printing for the first time, this can be a good option. This particular software supports an intuitive block-building concept, and you can create models from a set of basic shapes. Besides, it also offers guides and tutorials to aid beginners. So, edit the image and process it for final 3D printing.

After that, the best 3d printer for dental models will start creating 3D printed teeth. Based on the types of printers you have; your printer will use different types of materials and process for 3D printing. For example, FDM, where hot melted material or filament, is utilized to create models’ layer by layer. There is also SLS- Selective Laser Sintering, where UV light is used to cure the powder.

In some cases, stereolithography can be used, in which UV light is used for resin curing. The essential benefits of using 3D printing for dental product is the speed. The method takes a few hours to create a full batch. Besides, you can easily customize the model quite quickly. Compared to the traditional way, this method is accurate.

How have dentists used 3D printers?

Orthodontists, oral surgeons and dentists are utilizing 3D printing in the patient care and research and testing. Utilizing this, highly exact replicas can be developed of virtually any part of the human body, covering teeth and jaw. When you have the precise replicas, corrective appliances and dental implants can be designed to work, look and fit better.

On the other hand, the material used to create 3D printed objects is also advancing and enhancing quickly. While most of the objects are printed using plastics, you can now find various composited materials. 3D printing is commonly used in the development of dental implants and crowns. The process yields a final product that is indistinguishable from your natural teeth.

1.3, What’s the changes after the intervention of 3d printers

It is already worth around USD 780 million in the global dental market; 3D printing industry is moving forwards to cross USD 1000 million in this sector. The prevalence of the technology in the market is projected to grow, but better 3D printing material and 3D printers are already being produced specifically for the dentists.

Experts have predicted that the sale of 3D printing systems to dental labs will double. On the other hand, it is also predicted that 3D printing is projected to offer more than 60 per cent of the dental production requirements by the end of 2025.

Capabilities of 3D printing in the dental industry

You might be wondering how exactly do the dentists utilize 3D printing? Here are a few essential applications that you can consider.

1. Creating orthodontic model

As discussed above, pre-3D printer technology includes a process where the patient bites down on gooey to harden into a mould. This becomes a model for designing a treatment for Invisalign or braces. However, this is not the process of 3D printing. With the latest technology, a dentist can scant the teeth structure, design a perfect orthodontic appliance and 3D print the model in-house.

2. Repair and replace a damaged tooth

The dentists properly scan the mouth of the patients using a small digital wand. This develops an accurate 3D image of the gums and teeth, and that is saved as a digital file. The CAD software tool lets the dentists digitally frame the tooth repair and print the object on a 3D printer. The entire process will take only a few hours.

3. Create surgical tools

Not only can an orthodontic 3d printer handle the dental implants themselves, but the machine can also 3D print different types and sizes of drill guides required to complete specific dental procedures.

4. Produce caps, bridges, dentures and more

The same process outlined above can be utilized to 3D print different types of dental implants. The only measure difference will be the precise material utilized in the printing process.

Thanks to the innovative time saving, a clear aligner can be quickly and easily developed according to the patient’s teeth structure. Orthodontic treatment can now be completed within a short period of time using applying new appliance on the teeth step by step within just 4 to 8 days.

The global 3D printing market in the field of dental is estimated at USD 3.5 billion. However, it is growing much faster compared to the oral scanner market. The total 3D printing market value is projected to reach USD 26.1 billion by the end of 2022. It has been proved that the medical and dental fields will be a high value-added market in the 3D printing industry.

The clear aligner can be a new market

Compared to the implant market, the transparent aligner market is quite significant. China is considered the second-largest aligner market. The total market is valued at KRW 40 trillion. The well-known company “Invisalign” witnessed KRW 1.6 trillion of total sales for its clear aligners in 2017. The yearly average growth rate was recorded at 8.0 per cent, and its sales growth for the year 2021 is projected to be around USD 4.71 billion.

Why dentists prefer to used 3D-printed dental products?

The super flexibility of 3D printing system makes it a lot easier to create customized products, such as dental prosthetics, retainers, guards and more. Some other significant benefits of using 3D printed dental products are:

1. Lower waste

3D printing eliminates the requirement for a thermoforming mould and the considerable material lost during the grinding and buffing steps. The material waste level can be lowered by around 80 per cent through 3d printing dental implants.

2. Customization without thermoforming and trimming

Now, there is no need to create a trimming and thermoforming mould. Instead, you can use a mouth scanner to create a digital model and print the final product directly.

3. Quick turnaround

By eliminating the trimming and thermoforming steps, the final dental 3D object can be quickly 3D printed and shipped without investing many efforts.

4. Competitive materials

All most all the 3D printed products are competitive with products made of traditional materials. For example, epoxies, thermoformed acrylics, and more in terms of colour, value, strength and durability.

Reducing material waste, improving material and eliminating post-processing steps into a higher quality 3D object that are cost-competitive.

After knowing all these things about an LCD dental 3d printer, you might have started planning to buy a 3D printer. But how to choose the best one for you? Feeling confused? Here is some information that can help you with this. Have a look.

3.1, Which machines are needed, and for what purpose?

3.1.1, 3d scanner

Whether you are a dentist looking for a perfect dental tool or an industrial engineer looking for a powerful reverse-engineering solution, 3D scanning can help you a lot. 3D scanning is a modern technology that is used to create high-precision 3D models of different real-world objects. The 3D scanner takes different snapshots of an object.

After that, the shots are fused carefully into a 3D model. Speaking about the dental 3D scanner, it lets the dentists see the patients’ dental anatomy from different angles. It can capture images analyzing which you can have a better view of the mouth bone structure, and you will be able to accurately measure the anatomical structure.

Besides, a 3D scan can also support multiple types of treatment and diagnosis planning, making the scanner quite flexible. Furthermore, a 3D scanner can increase treatment success chances, allow dentists to better extract, place implants, and carry out root evaluations. So, this plays a crucial role in making 3d printed dental models. While buying the best 3d printer for dental models, you will have to buy an excellent 3D printer.

3.1.2, LCD 3d printer

This machine will process the digital imaging data taken by a 3D scanner and processed by a CAD software tool. For digital dentistry and 3d printing, you won’t find the best option than an LCD 3d printer. This is one of the latest developments in resin 3D printing and utilizes a technique where an affordable LCD screen is used for masking.

Unlike DLP printers, an LCD printer doesn’t have any DMD chips. The LCD technique functions by an array of LEDs, illuminating on the LCD. The masked LCD screen creates the required curing pattern. This turns the liquid resin into hard plastic on the spot where the laser light hits the resin. Some of the significant advantages for 3D printers are:

1. The cost related to LCD 3D printer and LCD printing is relatively cost-effective. So, these printers facilitate cost-effective rapid prototyping.
2. Using this, you can easily design, manufacture, and different test type of customized parts within a few minutes.
3. Another significant advantage of LCD 3D printers is they can print almost anything. You need to feel the design into the software, and your 3D printer will carry out the task.
4. 3D printing doesn’t require any type of levelling, and the precision level is quite good.

There are more such benefits that make LCD 3D printers an ideal option for 3d printing dental industry.

3.2, How to choose the most important part: 3D printer

There are some other factors that you should keep in your mind while buying an LCD 3D printer. Have a look at the below-listed points.

3.2.1, What is the size of the print

Before buying, you need to consider the size of the print. This also means the build area capacity that the printer has. As you are buying a 3D printer for the dental industry, a printer with a small built area will work correctly. In 3D printing, the size is generally measured by 10-inches Wide (X) by 10-inches Deep (Y) by 15-inches High (Z), for example.

3.2.2, Choose a reliable brand

When buying the best 3d printer for dentures, you should always choose a trustworthy brand. Because only a well-known brand like Dreambot3D can offer you the printers that will work correctly at a higher speed. The machines will also come with a highly durable enclosed structure to run for hours without developing any issue.

3.2.3, Safety configuration of the machine

Most of the resins produce different types of Volatile Organic Carbons. So, you need to buy a printer that comes with the enclosed structure to lower the risk of VOCs’ contact. So, ask the manufacturers about the safety features of the printers.

3.2.4, Resolution requirements of the machine

When it comes to the lab and dental practice, not every dental printer will work perfectly. In 3D printing, the resolution is measure in microns. If there are smaller microns, you will get a very high level of details. Furthermore, you should get a denture 3d printer where you can adjust the printing speed as the speed of the printer can affect the resolution.

3.2.5, Consider whether the price of the machine is acceptable

For this, you can check the features of the printers. Some of the standard features that you can consider here are speed adjustment, multiple material supports, build platform size, constant heat generation system, and more. So, keep these things in mind.

3.2.6, Consider the supplier’s after-sales service capability

Always go for a manufacturer that offers an excellent level of after-sales services. This way, you can solve any type of technical issue much faster.

3.2.7, Consider the service life of the machine

As per the experts, you should buy a dental 3d printer that can work for around 5 to 10 years. You should also avoid using low-quality material and follow a proper maintenance routine to keep it running smoothly.

3.2.8, Consider the maintenance cost of the machine

The maintenance cost of a 3D printer can be relatively high. You may face a situation where you will have to replace fans, heat break, liner bearing, PTEF tubing more. To avoid such a situation and keep the maintenance cost low, take good care of your printer.