Digital dentures

3D printing is a fascinating advance in computer technology. Dentistry is often an early adopter of technological break throughs and 3d printing in dentistry is no different.So what is 3d printing in dentistry and how does it relate to Digital dentures ?

Dentistry is a unique combination of 3-dimensional medical treatment requiring exact placement of materials and as well as placement of forces on teeth. Designing appliances like Digital dentures to make this easier is an ideal usage for 3d printing in dentistry.

Digital Dentures

The construction of a denture for a patient has traditionally been a long arduous process. Many different appointments were needed to measure both how the dentures fit in the mouth as well as how the 2 jaws and teeth fit together. The denture was ultimate prepared in wax, with teeth placed. They were tried in the mouth, adjusted and then sent to the dental laboratory. A complicated and inexact process of pouring stone around the wax try in teeth and then melting the wax out in order to inject plastic or porcelain into the hollow ensued.

3D printing is changing all of this. Now a digital impression of the entire soft tissue of the mouth is taken. It is a 3d scan and the ensuing file has a standard .stl format. This .stl file is easy to manipulate digitally and as a result we can utilize it to manufacture the appliance. We scan both jaws and capture the 3d relationship of how the upper and lower jaws fit together.Then it is a matter of designing the denture digitally.

We print the base in a material that is pink like gums. We then print the teeth and glue the two together. We are left with a perfectly fitting denture.