The US Food and Drug Administration ruled that Dentca’s Denture Base system was similar enough to Dentsply’s Trubyte Denture Base Resin System to not need safety checks.
Dentists may soon be able to make dentures at their offices as the innovation is cleared, although the system is designed for laboratory use, Medscape reported. The approved system begins with the standard casting impression of the mouth in the dentist office, which is converted into a digital image via an optical impression system.
A stereolithographic laser printer then adds layer on layer of material to create the denture base, which is then added to the preformed plastic teeth and cured in a light chamber. The finished dentures are sent back to the dentist for fitting.
In both the Dentca and Dentsply processes, the bases are made by adding multiple layers, which are each light cured before the next layer is added, but the Dentsply system has laboratory technicians manually create the layers, rather than a stereolithographic printer.
Researcher Hiroshi Hirayama experimented with the new technology at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, conducting prosthodontics research until his retirement last year. The Recycler reported on another medical printing innovation at the US university in July 2015, as researchers created a smart ink that could be used on medical gloves.
Patients at Hirayama’s private clinic were very satisfied with the 3D printed dentures, apart from problems with unstable fits. He said that “3D dentures have a huge potential to provide above-standard-care quality of denture treatment in underserved areas anywhere in the world by improving much more standardized digital denture protocols and measurements”.
Sun Kwon, CEO of Dentca, said: “This clearance completely revolutionizes the denture manufacture process, which has barely changed in over 100 years.”
“Dental schools should get the digital dentures in the curriculum and teach students how to do it,” he said.
Looking forward, digital scanning and computer-aided design may be used more to facilitate digital construction of denture bases, Hirayama predicts, although 3D printers may not be ready to be installed in dentist’s offices because of the cost. Yet Dentca still believes the technology has huge potential, citing an estimate by SmarTech Markets Publishing that the 3D-printed dental hardware, materials, and components market will be worth $2 billion (€1.8 billion) market in 2016, rising to $3.1 billion (€2.8 billion) by 2020.