The Application Of 3D Printing Technology In The Field Of Dentistry
At present, the rapidly developing 3D printing technology has been applied to many industries, among which the application in the dental industry is the most striking. 3D printing technology is a natural match with the dental industry, and its applications in the oral cavity are constantly breaking through. The in-depth application of these applications realizes personalized customization, optimizes the medical process, and reduces pain.
1. 3D printing technology has obvious advantages in dentistry
First of all, based on the differences in the characteristics of each patient's teeth in the dental industry, the generated 3D data is also different, and the application of 3D printing technology can achieve personalized production. Secondly, the structure of human teeth is relatively complex. Traditional manual labor will lead to deviations in the accuracy of dental medical products, resulting in patient discomfort. 3D printing technology meets the needs of dental precision, complexity, and tailor-made. Finally, dental patients always want to be able to get fast and effective treatment, traditional processing methods are slow, and 3D printing technology can speed up the treatment process.
The applications of 3D printing technology in the dental industry mainly include orthodontics, dental implants and restorations, and removable dentures. Dentistry is currently the most promising medical field where 3D printing technology can be applied on a large scale.
2. Orthodontics
The application of 3D printing technology in dental braces is mainly lingual braces and invisible transparent braces. The 3D printing technology of lingual braces is mostly SLM (Selective Laser Melting) technology. Compared with the traditional investment casting method, the metal lingual braces printed by SLM technology can realize the direct molding of personalized brackets. Avoid casting defects such as voids and voids. Invisible and transparent aligners are mostly SLA (light curing molding) technology and DLP (digital light processing) technology. Invisible orthodontic technology is the world's first mass-produced 3D-printed product. 3D-printing technology can realize mass-customized production of tooth models at different stages of orthodontic treatment.
The entire production process of invisible appliances is roughly divided into several major links: "impression - scanning - 3D modeling - digital simulation orthodontic design - 3D printing dental mold - appliance processing - cleaning and disinfection". In the whole process, 3D printing is mainly responsible for the batch customization of dental models at different stages of orthodontic treatment. After the tooth model is made, the transparent diaphragm is wrapped on the model by the thermoplastic molding process, so as to produce an invisible appliance suitable for the patient. Through the analysis of the patient's oral data, professionals will combine the software to design the teeth arrangement, such as moving each tooth by 0.2-0.3 mm each time, or twisting it by 3-5 degrees, etc., so as to obtain the oral model data of different correction stages, and then use 3D printing technology prints in batches at a time.
3. Dental implants and restorations
3D-printed dental implants can directly form the entire tooth body containing the root. Only minimally invasive tooth extraction, implant placement and crown restoration are required. It can be seamlessly integrated with the original alveolar, reducing patient pain and chairside treatment cycles. It takes one to two hours, the doctor's operation time is only half an hour, and the cost is greatly reduced, which is expected to be controlled within 10,000 yuan.
In the field of oral implantation, pure titanium metal (or alloy) is widely used because of its good biocompatibility, mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. Implant materials include metal implants, ceramic implants, carbon implants, polymer implants, composite materials, etc.; crown materials include gold, cobalt-chromium alloy, nickel-chromium alloy, ceramic alloy and other metal materials, and zirconia all-ceramic, resin, etc. The printing technology of implants and metal crowns is mainly SLM (selective laser melting), and the printing technology of crown and bridge casting models is mainly SLA (light curing molding) and DLP (digital light processing).
removable dentures
Traditional denture processing is inseparable from the manual skills of dental technicians in making wax models and casting crowns. This production method leads to a high rate of denture rework, which not only reduces the work efficiency of dental laboratories but also reduces patients wearing dentures of comfort. Compared with traditional denture processing methods, which are highly dependent on manual labor, digital dental technology replaces a lot of manual labor with scanning, software, and automated processing equipment.
When CNC machine tools are machining metal crowns, a tool needs to be used to mill the metal crown from a metal blank. Compared with CNC machining, metal 3D printing technology has more prominent advantages in crown production cost and efficiency. At present, digital dental technology including CNC machining technology and 3D printing technology is becoming the mainstream technology for denture machining. 3D printed wax models or 3D printed resin models that replace wax models are also used in the casting of dental crowns, and these technologies also have a digital feature.
