3D technology revolutionizes dental care

Do you hate chomping on clay to make a mold for an orthodontic appliance? Well 3D scanning and printing are advancing into the dental field at warp speed, making processes faster, easier and even more accurate.

Dental applications are growing as a significant sweet spot for 3D printing because of its focus on one-off custom parts that require very tight tolerances. There is growing penetration in orthodontics and prosthodontics for half a dozen different types of additive manufacturing technology.

Featured plastics include polyamide (nylon) and polyester.

A virtual Who's Who of suppliers exhibited at the International Dental Show in Cologne, Germany this month showing how 3D printers can cut lead times and boost productivity.

Stratasys announced the launch of the Objet30 OrthoDesk 3D Printer specially designed for smaller orthodontic labs and clinics.

"Objet30 OrthoDesk is great for smaller labs. It offers efficiency, quality and accuracy in a convenient desktop size which is justright for us," said Ana L. Marin, Lab Owner, ARCAD Lab. "It's enabling us to expand our services to a wider range of customers. I definitely see Objet30 OrthoDesk as a game changer."

Stone models, orthodontic appliances, delivery and positioning trays, clear aligners, retainers and surgical guides can all be produced significantly faster and much more accurately than before, according to Avi Cohen, director of Global Dental at Stratasys. As many as 20 models can be created with every print run.

Before its merger with Objet last year, Stratasys had been making a bigger move into dental markets.

In  2011, Startasys acquired Solidscape, a manufacturer of high precision 3D printers used for investment casting applications that require ultra-fine feature detail.  The D76PLUS targets medium-sized dental laboratories and is used to produce high quality castable and pressable dental restorations.  Solidscape 3D materials are polyesters used in lost wax casting.

EOS showed plastic and metal laser sintering applications at IDS 2013.

The special cobalt-chrome-molybdenum-based super-alloy EOS CobaltChrome SP2 is used to manufacture crowns and bridges. Pigment-filled polyamide-12-powder PA 2105 is used in a system to produce a number of different dental models.

EnvisiontTEC showed 3Dent, a 3D printer with a build envelope of 279 x 184 x 76mm with a resolution of 25 microns for printing models. 3Dent uses a process called Selective Contour Photocuring (SCP) to compete with gypsum models. 

One of the hits at the 3D Systems booth was a model produced from a VisiJet Pearl that was almost indistinguishable from high-quality plaster. Another growing application attracting attention was distributed implant drill guide production.