Traditional dental manufacturing processes require a significant amount of time to create custom implants or other dental appliances. With 3D printing dental solutions, dental labs and practices improve the patient experience with faster turnaround time and comfortable fit. But it is challenging to find the best 3D printer for dentistry that supports a broad range of products and provides flexible printing processes.
Below, we discuss how 3D printing benefits dentistry, the key features needed in 3D printing for dentistry, and how LuxCreo’s integrated 3D printing dental solutions simplifies the production workflow, offering a competitive edge over other 3D printers available on the market.
How Does 3D Printing Benefit Dentistry?
With 3D printing technology, every step of dental appliance production is optimized — from creating digital impressions of patients’ mouths to post-processing. To narrow down the best 3D printer for dentistry one must understand how 3D printing solutions benefit dental labs and practices:
Accuracy
Advanced 3D printing software eliminates machining and modification steps and enables technicians to control interior and exterior dimensions. The high-resolution printing further improves the dimensional accuracy to create a true-to-design end product.
Speed
A digitalized workflow eliminates the time-consuming steps in traditional dental appliance production. The shorter turnaround from days to hours for dental labs and offices enables quick printing and shipping, including same-day or next-day delivery of dental appliances to patients.
Patient Satisfaction
Compared to the traditional mold-making process, an intraoral scanner offers a faster, more accurate, and comfortable way to create digital impressions. Additionally, the high strength of 3D printing resins ensures long-term wear resistance and durability of dental appliances.
Digitalized and Streamlined Workflow
As dental procedures become digitalized, dental appliance production gets streamlined with 3D printers. Compared to conventional technology, the on-demand digital production process reduces both manufacturing time and costs, resulting in accurately printed dental appliances.
Versatility
3D printers are versatile machines that can produce various devices, including models, trays, surgical guides, orthodontic splints, dentures, crowns and bridges, and aligners. Advancements in additive manufacturing technology have been particularly useful for dental labs and practices where compact printer size and higher throughput enable printing of different materials with a simple swap of tanks or a quick wipe down.
Desktop Printers for Dental Practices
A high-performance, compact, and fast desktop dental 3D printing solution enables on-demand manufacturing of various dental appliances, including clear aligners, night guards, and retainers. User-friendly software makes it easy to integrate a desktop printer without the need to hire specialized labor.
The ease of use and accuracy make the production of appliances like clear aligners economical for private practices. Aligner production can begin as soon as the digital oral scans of a patient’s mouth are available. After the first few stages of the aligner treatment plan have been completed, dental practices can partner with dental labs to outsource as needed and reduce any setbacks in the treatment plan schedule with faster turnaround times.
Software Development
A proprietary printing software eliminates and automates steps for a fast, digitalized production workflow. Software like LuxFlow and LuxAlign go from scan/dental model to aligner in less than four minutes. A full batch of clear aligners, retainers, or nightguards can be printed in thirty minutes.
Simplified Manufacturing
3D printing in dentistry reduces material waste during manufacturing by up to 80% and significantly improves the cost-effectiveness of dental appliances by eliminating thermoforming and product trimming. Additionally, 3D printers enable batch production of multiple appliances with minimal post-processing.
Dental practices and labs can realize the benefits of 3D printing in dentistry through LuxCreo’s dental 3D printing solutions.
Key Features of the Best 3D Printer for Dentistry
While choosing the best 3D printing solution for dentistry, dental professionals should consider what best suits their facility’s needs. 3D printers produce the same products but differ in the speed of operation and post-processing levels. Ideally, your service provider should offer hardware, software, and materials designed holistically to work together. Some other considerations include:
Simplified and Streamlined Workflow
LuxCreo works continually to reduce process times and eliminate process steps. An example of this is LuxCreo’s Digital Polishing technology that produces smooth, clear surfaces for clear aligners, retainers, splints, and night guards allowing dental labs and practices to reduce their labor per device by up to 90% and reduce the material used by up to 90%.
Easy to use software and mechanics
LuxCreo emphasizes creating a user-friendly experience for dental practices and labs with integrated 3D solutions that include software, printers, and advanced dental resins for various appliances. Some tools include fixed options, mirroring, support generation, batch, marking, and slice tools. A simplified workflow means patients and cases are organized and easy to edit.
Scalable production
LuxCreo’s Light Enabled Additive Production (LEAP) technology makes customized volume production possible with high printing speeds and production part performance. Compact sizes of desktop printers allow practices to control workflow and reduce if not eliminate outsourced production. The direct printing of multiple products in a single batch without the extensive post-processing steps saves time, labor, and material.
Accurate and precise printing
Patient-specific customization is a crucial feature of oral appliances. With LuxCreo’s high-performance dental 3D printers, more accurate appliances can be produced with a broad range of advanced, FDA-approved resins. The efficient and intuitive software achieves precise and consistently high throughput and high yield at the production level.
LuxCreo provides 3D printing dental solutions that fit different needs of dental offices and dental labs. Dental labs and aligner brands can take advantage of the large format Lux3+ Dental, which eliminates 90% of traditional material usage and labor costs. The iLuxPro Desktop Dental printer can benefit practices with the fast, high-performance production of aligners, retainers, night guards, and bite splints.
Choose a 3D Printing Partner That Provides a Holistic Solution
LuxCreo is focused on advancing additive manufacturing for digital dentistry with dedicated software development, materials scientists, and engineering teams. Our ability to control and tailor 3D printing materials, software, and hardware gives LuxCreo’s dental solutions unique advantages that simplify and streamline digital production workflow. We have consistently rated among the best 3D printers for dentistry because our teams work together to continually improve the performance of 3D printing solutions, customize workflows, and support the manufacturing of a wide range of dental appliances. Our focus on production-first dental 3D printing solutions is transforming dental manufacturing for dental practitioners and dental labs.
To learn more about choosing the best 3D printer for dentistry, visit our contact page or call 1 (650) 336-0888.
