Digital Dentistry During CIOSP 2019 (Sao Paulo International Dental Meeting)

Last week I went back to CIOSP.  It’s the biggest South America Dental Trade Show, similar to European IDS.  During last year’s show, 3D-scanner and dental milling machine were quite popular.  Small benchtop mills and lathes were all over the place and the biggest companies like Cerec and 3shape were dominating the showroom.


Image courtesy Revista Eventos

2019 brought a new trend: 3d printing was in almost every booth,  including the implant makers. Even little resin photopolymer solidifier has its space. The dental industry is really embracing additive! But how are they using it?

Here is the list :

Instruments

Image courtesy of Formlabs

To be able to position the instruments during the implant and restorations many dentists can make the surgical guides themselves or ask the dental lab to make them for the procedure. These devices are designed over the 3D scanned dental models and save lots of time for the dentists and the patients.

Dental Models

Image courtesy of Stratasys

The Digital dentistry is moving forward fast, the old plaster models made from mouth alginate impression are in the past,  everyone now wants the intraoral 3D-scanner. Even though it is not so easy to take the scan, because it demands experience with the device, this is becoming increasingly popular. After digital design work (CAD/CAM), the models will be made in small 3d printers, with biocompatible ( or not) resin, and used for many things in dental work.

Castable Resin

Image courtesy Formlabs

Even when a cast is needed,  from metal denture pattern, metal crowns, to ceramic teeth,  we can now have a castable resin that is lost during cast of the parts. Those parts can also be designed over 3D-scanned models and then customized to the shape of the patient, saving a lot of time and effort from labs and dentists.

Dentures and Teeth

Image courtesy of Carbon

Finally even the aesthetic part, gums and tooth, are being made direct by 3d printing in resins that imitate the look and feel of the real thing, small adjustments made by the dentist and voila you have a new set of polymeric teeth with a much more comfortable fit in a very short time.

Aligners

The transparent aligners are being used for some time now. They always had been made using 3d printers to make the molds for the mouthpieces, but now with new resins, even the aligners itself can be made in the machines. This is bringing a new speed to the aligner maker and more players like Strauman and even smaller labs are fighting for the market that was almost exclusive to Invisalign.

To be included in the market all big dental companies are releasing 3d printing dental systems but based on that, I got inspired and just after arrive office started to play with files and my little resin photopolymer solidifier… the result? You find in the set of pictures hereunder.  I think that it proves everyone with some knowledge can take big benefits of the new digital dentistry.

About the Author:

Fabio Sant’Ana has Precision Mechanics degree and Business Administration Bachelor ’s, born and raised in São Paulo he has 25 years experience in helping companies to acquire and take full advantage of 3d Machining and Additive Manufacturing Equipment . Entrepreneur and knowledge avid is a member of stardarts organizations ASTM F42 Additive MManufacturing, ABNT CEE-261 Manufatura Aditiva e ABNT CB-26 Odonto-Médico-Hospitalar . CAD/CAM , Surface Modelling and EBM specialist he is passionate in connect people and companies to the right tools to accomplish the mission. Fabio is our current community manager in Brazil, San Paulo.

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