3D printing is transforming industries ranging from dentistry to footwear. Growing demand for dental appliances like aligners, retainers, and night guards combined with the latest advancements in digital dentistry and 3D printing provides offices many manufacturing advantages over using an external dental lab or service bureau.
Using 3D printing for dental manufacturing requires selecting the appropriate 3D printing materials and resins. There is a broad and growing range of 3D printing materials and resins for dental manufacturing. Different appliances can benefit from these dental materials to improve performance, fit, and production time. Using the right 3D printing solution and materials can enable new business models in the dental industry, both for practitioners and service providers like dental labs.
Why Choosing the Right 3D Printing System is Important
3D printers implement specific printing processes that need to match compatible materials and end-use products. Dentists and service providers can use specific 3D printing systems to transform their businesses while also delivering high-quality dental appliances to their customers.
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Simplified workflow/Reduced Post Processing
Surface Finish/Clarity
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Printing Speed
The best 3D printing systems for dental manufacturing use an optical process with biocompatible photosensitive resins, enabling batch dental manufacturing with high throughput, quality, and biocompatibility. This process ensures safety, improves the patient’s experience, and helps expedite treatment. It also enables a new business model for dentists and dental labs to produce appliances, post-process them, and complete delivery to the customer on the same day.
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Product Quality and Printing Accuracy
Because dental appliances are highly customized, they need to be manufactured with very high accuracy to ensure a patient’s comfortable fit. Optical 3D printing with resins is one of the most accurate processes for one-off customization and critical for high-quality 3D printed dental appliances. Today’s advanced 3D printing systems don’t sacrifice speed for quality. They are cost-competitive compared to traditional or computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) processes for dental appliances.
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Application-Specific Solutions
3D printing requires specific software that can translate a CAD model for a product into printing instructions; the best printers provide a specialized software package that makes this conversion seamless. The synergy between 3D printing and compatible software helps achieve a standard that isn’t obtained by mixing and matching different materials and printing systems.
This bundled package also speeds up the printing workflow and ensures products are of the highest quality. The user can tailor the system to the specific product application, which streamlines the user’s workflow. These types of systems have enabled efficient 3D manufacturing for a range of unique products, including dental appliances, footwear, medical devices, and much more.
3D Dental Manufacturing Shopping List
Materials are just one component dentists and dental labs need for 3D dental manufacturing. Dentists and labs that want to use 3D printing for dental appliance manufacturing need an adaptable 3D printer that can support multiple materials and a dental scanner and software bundle that is compatible with the printing system.
With so many dental resins and printing systems available for 3D dental manufacturing, it helps to work with a 3D printing partner to help determine the best printer, materials, and software for your needs. LuxCreo’s 3D printers, specialized dental resins, and software offer a complete application-specific dental manufacturing solution.
Learn more about finding the right 3D manufacturing tools for your needs: https://luxcreo.com/products/
Dental Labs: Lux 3+ Dental 3D Printer
LuxCreo’s flagship 3D printer for dental manufacturing is the Lux 3+ Dental 3D printer. This printer supports all the materials and appliances listed above, and integrates with LuxCreo’s specialized software packages for consistent high-throughput and high yield at a production scale for dental labs and large orthodontic groups.
High build volume: 192×120×200 mm3
High X/Y resolution: 76.5 μm (DLP)
High throughput:
Advanced materials: uses methacrylate-based resins listed above
Large X/Y printing area: allows batch printing of small dental products
Chairside: iLux Dental 3D Printer for “Same Day” Service
LuxCreo’s iLux and iLux Pro 3D printers are the most scalable 3D printing solutions for digital dentistry with best in class clear direct printing achieving 90% labor savings and 90% labor savings.. iLux Pro clear, fast, and accurate dental manufacturing solution enables a new level of customer service with “same day” service. iLux and iLux Pro support all the materials and appliances listed above, and integrate with LuxCreo’s specialized software packages for consistent high-throughput and high yield at a production scale
High build volume: 192×120×200 mm3
High X/Y resolution: 25 μm with 4K LCD projection screen
High throughput:
Advanced materials: uses methacrylate-based resins listed above
Large X/Y printing area: allows batch printing of small dental products
LuxFlow and LuxLink Software
LuxCreo also offers two specialized software packages that help dental labs, orthodontists, and dentists simplify and grow their dental manufacturing with the iLux Dental and Lux 3+ dental solutions.
LuxFlow:
LuxLink:
LuxAlign:
Learn more about LuxCreo’s 3D printing software for dental manufacturing: https://luxcreo.com/products/software/