What are digital dentures good for?

[Davesgone]

Cost of equipment? To much? Final product? Is it worth it?

 

[JonnyLathe]

The investment is at the start pretty high. Cad software, 3D printer (plus wash and cure) or ideally a mill that can handle PMMA.

The benefits are the speed and ability to easily reproduce. I was setting dentures in wax for over 10 years before going digital and I can't produce a denture anywhere as fast analog as I can design digital. Being able to use smile design to set teeth to a patient's face yields far more predictable aesthetic results than a midline and high smile line mark on a wax rim.

Patient loses their denture? You have the file and can easily remill/reprint it. Milled dentures are also extremely strong. 3D printed dentures cost probably about $10-$15 worth of resin to print, and that's with premium resin.

Going digital offers you the ability to make really high end all-on-x restorations as well. 3D printed nightguards are a breeze. It also opens you up to accounts that want to send intraoral scans.

 

[Gigieiya]

Here in "poor EU regions" and even in some Habibi Swedish labs it's still preferable and much cheaper to hire removable technician, buy a pot and produce student-stylish flat acrylic dentures. Not much dentists take it serious, people here can afford themselves All-on-X. Mostly)

So get a nice prise from a dentist, milling machine and you're good)

 

[JKraver]

Cost of equipment? To much? Final product? Is it worth it?

Well you don't really buy your equipment to do digital dentures. You buy the equipment because you need a 3d printer in todays lab and you can do digital dentures in them.

 

[Affinity]

Still waiting to see pics of a patient that loves their printed dentures.

 

[FASTFNGR]

Cost of equipment? To much? Final product? Is it worth it?

No, piece of crap you can not reline or repair. That is why they are called disposable dentures.

 

[sirmorty]

Digital Dentures are great for selling equipment..

 

[KWDENTURES]

Quick setup, great fit, uniform thickness throughout the whole denture, easy to manufacture immediates.
I don't use the printed bases for long term use. But I do utilize digital to setup and design the denture, print a try-in, and once approved I take a wash and pour a model, flask it, putty over the teeth like a rebase. Then I pop the try-ins out, put in a post-dam, insert printed teeth or carded teeth and cure in analogue with your favorite acrylic.
Best of both worlds. Fit, design, setup and accuracy of digital with the strength, robustness and all the goodness of conventional materials.

Just my two cents.

 

[mightymouse]

Then I pop the try-ins out, put in a post-dam, insert printed teeth

Interesting. Curious, I’m assuming you’re printing the file for the teeth and inserting into the flask. If so are you doing mechanical retention as there hasn’t been a go to material for printed teeth bonding to acrylic. Ive heard of people doing it and having success but we’re talking about a permanent (2nd set) denture and I would want to be more assured of long term success. Love your hybrid approach. I can see the benefits of time management and efficiency.

 

[bigj1972]

Interesting. Curious, I’m assuming you’re printing the file for the teeth and inserting into the flask. If so are you doing mechanical retention as there hasn’t been a go to material for printed teeth bonding to acrylic. Ive heard of people doing it and having success but we’re talking about a permanent (2nd set) denture and I would want to be more assured of long term success. Love your hybrid approach. I can see the benefits of time management and efficiency.

Yeah, I can't get carded teeth that are always completely identical, You would have to have an stl of carded teeth for that. Does such a strategy exist??
A tooth library copied from carded teeth? Trubyte, Ivoclar?

 

[TheLabGuy]

Yeah, I can't get carded teeth that are always completely identical, You would have to have an stl of carded teeth for that. Does such a strategy exist??
A tooth library copied from carded teeth? Trubyte, Ivoclar?

Yes, most companies have it. I don't use this technique but it's an interesting way of doing it.

 

[KWDENTURES]

Interesting. Curious, I’m assuming you’re printing the file for the teeth and inserting into the flask. If so are you doing mechanical retention as there hasn’t been a go to material for printed teeth bonding to acrylic. Ive heard of people doing it and having success but we’re talking about a permanent (2nd set) denture and I would want to be more assured of long term success. Love your hybrid approach. I can see the benefits of time management and efficiency.

I am cutting mechanical retention into the teeth before processing. Also, the 3d printed teeth have connectors between all of the teeth which are completely embedded in the acrylic which helps hold them in.
I've only started doing this for the last couple of weeks. So far, so good. I will let you know if things start going south.

 

[cadfan]

Polyjetting is the key https://www.3printr.com/3d-systems-introduces-multi-material-one-piece-denture-solution-0769250/

 

[JonnyLathe]

Yeah, I can't get carded teeth that are always completely identical, You would have to have an stl of carded teeth for that. Does such a strategy exist??
A tooth library copied from carded teeth? Trubyte, Ivoclar?

I haven't tried it but I believe both 3shape and exocad have a carded teeth option, but you usually have to purchase the libraries from the manufacturer and obviously you wouldn't be able to digitally alter the teeth.

I haven't found a use for it because I can count on one hand how many dentures I've waxed up that I haven't had to adjust the carded teeth on to get them in the right spot.

 

[Gru]

Interesting. Curious, I’m assuming you’re printing the file for the teeth and inserting into the flask. If so are you doing mechanical retention as there hasn’t been a go to material for printed teeth bonding to acrylic. Ive heard of people doing it and having success but we’re talking about a permanent (2nd set) denture and I would want to be more assured of long term success. Love your hybrid approach. I can see the benefits of time management and efficiency.

Have you tried to get a little flashed acrylic off printed teeth? Nearly impossible without grinding it off, IMHO. We use printed teeth regularly and printed bases for try-ins. Printed to printed doesn't seem to stay well, but acrylic to printed means that tooth isn't ever coming out on us unless we cut it out.

 

[bigj1972]

I haven't tried it but I believe both 3shape and exocad have a carded teeth option, but you usually have to purchase the libraries from the manufacturer and obviously you wouldn't be able to digitally alter the teeth.

I haven't found a use for it because I can count on one hand how many dentures I've waxed up that I haven't had to adjust the carded teeth on to get them in the right spot.

I've tried a "matrixed" approach before but the carded teeth were not consistent, especially if I wanted tight contacts.

 

[rlhhds]

Been doing milled dentures for over 2 years. My clients were apprehensive at first but now they absolutely love them and say dentures are now fun to do. Would not be able to keep up with the demand if we were not doing digital. Lack of skilled technicians is also driving it. The printed material keeps getting better and better and we are starting to do more of them. Right now our milled dentures are our premium line and starting to switch printed dentures to be our economy line. I am trying to digitize everything I can in removable. It is the future and it is here now.

 

[TheLabGuy]

Been doing milled dentures for over 2 years. My clients were apprehensive at first but now they absolutely love them and say dentures are now fun to do. Would not be able to keep up with the demand if we were not doing digital. Lack of skilled technicians is also driving it. The printed material keeps getting better and better and we are starting to do more of them. Right now our milled dentures are our premium line and starting to switch printed dentures to be our economy line. I am trying to digitize everything I can in removable. It is the future and it is here now.

What printed system did you go with out of curiosity?

 

[rlhhds]

What printed system did you go with out of curiosity?

Luci print. Know others that are happy with the material. Tooth shades look good. Several pink shades for the base to suite your needs. You can repair and reline this material. Had two of my techs do a hands on program at Dentsply and that really help them fill in the gaps they had about working with the material.

 

[Denture Dude]

Been doing milled dentures for over 2 years. My clients were apprehensive at first but now they absolutely love them and say dentures are now fun to do. Would not be able to keep up with the demand if we were not doing digital. Lack of skilled technicians is also driving it. The printed material keeps getting better and better and we are starting to do more of them. Right now our milled dentures are our premium line and starting to switch printed dentures to be our economy line. I am trying to digitize everything I can in removable. It is the future and it is here now.

Curious as to why the docs would be apprehensive about milled. My apprehension comes from hearing that there are a lot of cases where vertical space becomes an issue. Have you found this to be true?