A key space of software within the dental additive manufacturing (AM) world is the 3D printing of dentures. Because it stands, even with digital applied sciences like (AM), denture making is a labor-intensive course of. Nevertheless, it’s an space that each dental 3D printing firm hopes to disrupt. Amongst them is Stratasys Ltd. (NASDAQ: SSYS), which simply introduced the discharge of the market’s first monolithic, full-color 3D printed everlasting dentures answer, TrueDent.
With few opponents, Stratasys is the market chief in full-color 3D printing with its PolyJet expertise. Nevertheless, because of the materials restrictions of its course of, the components made with the expertise have historically been restricted to the manufacturing of highly-detailed and colourful fashions. TrueDent, nonetheless, is an FDA-cleared (Class II) dental resin that makes it attainable to 3D print everlasting dentures that characteristic each pure wanting gums and tooth on a single, steady print.
Till now, digitally manufactured dentures have been made in a number of steps, with a base and tooth fabricated independently after which bonded. With TrueDent, this course of is streamlined considerably. Dental labs and places of work can now produce dentures and different gadgets utilizing GrabCAD Print software program and the Stratasys J5 DentaJet 3D printer in what is supposed to be a easy workflow. This, in flip, cuts affected person chair time for visits, measurements, fittings, and changes, whereas enabling improved constancy for scan, design, and for. The corporate claims that the software is scalable and repeatable and that general time between scan and supply could be lowered.
“Till now, printed dentures and home equipment needed to be designed and manufactured in a number of components and bonded collectively,” mentioned Frank Acosta, Proprietor of AA Dental Design. “The TrueDent answer, using Stratasys’ methods and software program takes loads of that stress out. It simplifies the method, lowers the prices, and permits for dentures and temporaries to be produced a lot sooner, attaining unbelievable aesthetics. We are able to now develop our prosthetic service printing multi-colored personalised equipment at scale.”
“This new answer will likely be transformative for the dental business, and we consider it’s going to assist our prospects considerably scale back the time and value of manufacturing dentures and temporaries,” mentioned Ronen Lebi, Vice President of Dental at Stratasys. “Stratasys continues to push the boundaries of digital dentistry leveraging our portfolio of superior 3D printing applied sciences, together with {hardware}, resins and software program to ship disruptive options that make a distinction.”
Citing iData, Stratasys means that, of the 4.2 million full dentures made within the U.S. and 18 million bought worldwide, solely 5 p.c have been made with AM. Although it could be first to market, Stratasys isn’t the one one engaged on this answer. Desktop Well being has its personal FDA-cleared resin for intraoral use, although it did expertise a hiccup in getting it to market. That product nonetheless requires a number of steps, nonetheless. A novel startup, Quantica, has developed a printhead able to overcoming the fabric limitations of PolyJet and advertises single-step, monolithic, full-color dentures as a main software. It’s attainable that Stratasys has developed a brand new inkjet print head for depositing extra viscous, and subsequently, extra sensible supplies reminiscent of TrueDent. Or, maybe, the printer producer turned to Quantica itself to improve its expertise.
Regardless, that is solely the start of this market if Quantica licenses its inkjet expertise to a competitor or a agency like Mimaki ups the capabilities of its personal inkjet expertise. The patent-pending TrueDent resin is presently out there within the U.S. and solely appropriate with the Stratasys J5 DentaJet printer. These attending LMT Lab Day Chicago, February 23-25, 2023, will have the ability to see it in particular person.
Photographs courtesy of Stratasys.
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