At present, the rapid development of 3D printing technology has been applied to many industries, among which the dental application is the most remarkable.
Focusing on the research and development of 3D printing technology, Prismlab has had the strategic blueprint in the dental industry. Combining Prismlab's years of experience and market cognition in the dental industry, we will briefly introduce the main applications of 3D printing technology in the dental industry in the following sections.
Compared with biological 3D printing, the principle of other 3D printings is relatively simple, and the required materials are easier to obtain, as a result, it has been widely applied in the medical field, and among the dentistry is one of the most promising industries in abiotic 3D printing.
Obvious Advantages of 3D Printing in Dental Sector
Implant and Restoration
3D printing dental implants can form directly entire tooth with tooth root. Just after minimally invasive tooth extraction, implants insertion and dental crowns repair, the tooth can be seamlessly combined with original alveolar and reduce patients’ pain. The chair side treatment lasts 1-2 hours, but doctor operation only needs half an hour, and the cost is expected to be greatly reduced to less than ten thousand yuan.
In dental implantation, pure titanium (or alloy) is extensively adopted due to its good biocompatibility, mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. The implant materials include metal, ceramic, carbon, polymer, composite material, etc. Crown materials include gold, cobalt chromium alloy, nickel chromium alloy, ceramic alloy and other metal materials, as well as zirconia all-porcelain, resin and so on. The printing technology of implant and metal dental crown is mainly SLM (selective laser melting), and for casting model of dental crown or bridge is principally SLA (light curing molding) and DLP (digital optical processing).
Removable Denture
Traditional denture processing is inseparable from dental technicians' manual skills of making wax molds and casting crowns, which leads to the high rate of denture rework, not only reducing the efficiency of dental technicians, but also the denture wearing comfort of patients. Counter to traditional denture processing methods, digitized dental technology has replaced a lot of manual work with scanning, software and automatic processing equipment.
Through CNC machine tools, the metal crown is milling out from a metal blank by milling cutter. By contrast, metal 3D printing technology has more advantages in crown production cost and efficiency. Currently, digitized dental technology, covering CNC and 3D printing technology, is becoming the mainstream of denture processing. 3D printed wax moulds or 3D printed resin models used to replace wax moulds are also applied in crown casting, and these technologies both bear the imprint of digitalization.
With the continuous development of dental digitalization, more and more domestic enterprises are involved in the research of this field, and lunch their own 3D printing products according to the above applications. The RP-400D and RP-600D series are Prismlab’s two star flagship products for dental industry. Adopted the global original SMS (sub-pixel micro scanning) technology, they gain high efficiency and precision and have been broadly used in influential dental manufacturers or orthodontic service suppliers at home and abroad.
Even so, 3D printing also faces some limitations. Besides the threshold of materials, the production efficiency also needs a breakthrough urgently. Optimization of software to improve automation level, optimization of design to reduce the actual printing difficulty and cost, are all un-negligible breakthrough points.
3D printing in dental industry is a frontier application. While during the development, it also exists some similar problems like in other medical sectors. However, there’s every reason to believe that, with the further development of 3D printing, more and more high-tech enterprises at the forefront of 3D printing like Prismlab will invest in the research of digital technology of dentistry. 3D printing technology is becoming the mainstream technology of dentistry industry.
Dental Cooperation Partners of Prismlab
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