By Annette Brooks
Imagine walking into a dentist’s office and seeing a machine that fabricates dental implants, aligners and mouth guards, crowns, veneers, and braces right in the office. This isn’t a scene from a sci-fi movie, but a reality made possible by the advent of 3D (three-dimensional) printing technology and the use of 3D scanners. Since the dental industry requires high levels of customization, 3D printing is poised to usher in a new era of convenient, personalized dentistry with enhanced precision and efficiency.
Here are a few of the capabilities available today. Imagine what the future will bring!
Bridges, Dentures, Night Guards, and Splints in Less Time
Traditionally, crafting common-place dental appliances like these involves multiple time-consuming steps, including taking impressions digitally or with a goopy impression compound and sending them to a lab to create the appliance. With 3D printing, dentists now have the capability to create these appliances in the office, producing precise and personalized dental solutions in less time. Patient benefits include the convenience of making fewer trips to the dentist.
Tailor-made Crowns, Veneers, Inlays, and Onlays
One of the primary advantages of 3D printing in dentistry is its ability to create custom-made dental restorations with unmatched precision. By using digital scans of a patient’s mouth, dentists can design crowns, onlays and inlays — which are methods of restoring the structure of teeth after decay or damage, and even veneers with 3D printing. Plus, these 3D-printed solutions can perfectly fit each patient’s unique oral anatomy. This level of customization not only helps enhance patient comfort with a great fit but can also improve the longevity and functionality of the restoration. Furthermore, they are made in an off-site lab, and 3D printing enables the creation of custom temporary prosthetics worn by patients as they wait for their permanent restorations.
New Generation Orthodontics
In orthodontics, 3D printing is a game-changer. Traditional methods rely on sending images elsewhere for molding and casting. With 3D printing, the fabrication of orthodontic aligners, retainers, trays, and even ceramic braces has been upgraded to in-office production. This helps accelerate the treatment process and provides patients with greater accessibility to discreet orthodontic solutions.
Dental Implant Placement Precision
Another significant 3D printing application aids the production of surgical guides for dental implant placement. By incorporating digital imaging and 3D printing technologies, dentists can plan the position and angle of dental implants with potentially greater accuracy. By enhancing the precision of implant placement, the risk of complications may be reduced, the overall treatment process is expedited, and it helps ensure an optimal outcome.
Test Drive Your Ideal Smile
Sophisticated smile makeover imaging software helps patients envision what their new smile will look like. Using 3D printed models further showcases the anticipated results. They enable patients to try on 3D-printed models to assess the potential changes visually and physically. This approach can minimize misunderstandings between patients and their dentists and align them toward a unified goal.
Aiding Patient Education
Beyond the clinical applications mentioned, 3D printing in dentistry can further empower patient engagement and education. Dentists can use 3D-printed models to visually demonstrate treatment plans and explain procedures to their patients. Taking this level of interactive approach can foster greater understanding and collaboration between dentists and patients, ultimately leading to improved treatment outcomes and patient satisfaction.
Dental Research and Regenerative Dentistry
The future of 3D printing technology opens new possibilities for research and innovation in dentistry. Dental researchers are leveraging 3D printing to develop novel materials, bioresorbable implants, and tissue-engineered constructs for regenerative dentistry. These advancements hold the potential to revolutionize the field of dental regenerative medicine, offering new solutions for tooth regeneration, bone augmentation, and periodontal tissue engineering.
One example involves bone grafts. According to ClevelandClinic.com, a dental bone graft is required when bone loss has occurred in the jaw. This procedure is commonly performed before dental implant placement or when bone loss negatively affects neighboring teeth. Traditionally, bone grafting is done with an autograph, using the patient’s bone harvested from elsewhere in the body, or an allograft, which is tissue from a donor. According to the NIH (National Institutes of Health), 3D printing enables using a variety of biomaterials to create a porous scaffold with adequate mechanical strength that replaces lost bone.
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