3D printing night guards

WENDY

WENDY

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Does anyone print night guards?

If so, which printer do you use?
Did you face any problems? (Such as guard not fitting in patients mouth, breaking)
 
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Kevin3D

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Does anyone print night guards?

If so, which printer do you use?
Did you face any problems? (Such as guard not fitting in patients mouth, breaking)
Hi, yes you can. We use exocad to design and Nextdent 5100 to print them. very happy with the results.
 
Chalky

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Hi, yes you can. We use exocad to design and Nextdent 5100 to print them. very happy with the results.
how long have you been doing this for..? Id be interested to see what the splints look like after 6 - 12 months.
 
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Kevin3D

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how long have you been doing this for..? Id be interested to see what the splints look like after 6 - 12 months.
Ok,, thats what I also want to see. so far we have a patient that is wearing it for more than 2 month and he is happy. I will update you if I get anything regarding the endurance of this material.
 
Beatrice

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Don't expect too much from PMMA, printed or not it the same material, some patient will wear them 2-3 years and replace them because they will be worn out or just really disgusting some patient will be able to keep them for 1 year and that it.

Thing said printing them is a great solution if you can have volume !
 
Wainwright

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I think the biggest missed expectation around 3D printed occlusal splints is its really not for every case. If the patient has advanced bruxism or TMJ its really not the solution for them, traditional materials and techniques are best.

CAD design is also critical, I've seen failures but most of the time its due to just poor design. For example not correctly balancing the biting force across the appliance which puts all the stress on one or two points or maybe even worse those areas are adjusted on a model/chair-side, thinning the part too much in critical areas. Lastly simply designing parts that are too thin, we recommend 1.5 to 2 mm of thickness on the occlusal surface of the appliance, the walls can be as thin as 1 mm. It seems logical but its easy to miss these things.

But being able to print a occlusal splint for around $4 is awesome, make two for under $10 and give the second one as backup. : )

We have some pretty good information on these products on our indication or application page for occlusal splints and in our full step by step application guide.

Let me know if this is at all helpful!
 
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Kevin3D

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I think the biggest missed expectation around 3D printed occlusal splints is its really not for every case. If the patient has advanced bruxism or TMJ its really not the solution for them, traditional materials and techniques are best.

CAD design is also critical, I've seen failures but most of the time its due to just poor design. For example not correctly balancing the biting force across the appliance which puts all the stress on one or two points or maybe even worse those areas are adjusted on a model/chair-side, thinning the part too much in critical areas. Lastly simply designing parts that are too thin, we recommend 1.5 to 2 mm of thickness on the occlusal surface of the appliance, the walls can be as thin as 1 mm. It seems logical but its easy to miss these things.

But being able to print a occlusal splint for around $4 is awesome, make two for under $10 and give the second one as backup. : )

We have some pretty good information on these products on our indication or application page for occlusal splints and in our full step by step application guide.

Let me know if this is at all helpful!
I do agree that correct design plays a crucial role in achieving a successful treatment, not only in digital workflow but even conventionally. I have seen occlusal splints designed and manufactured in the lab without accurate consideration of jaws natural movements and balancing. Those splints might even worsen the situation for the patients. DIGITAL WORKFLOW is the same. knowing what is intended and how to achieve it is the key. Materials change by time. cold cure, heat cure or light cure printable resins if used properly, they are all good.
 
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shakkazulu

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Bite force... do the digital articulators have a T-scan so that you can measure solid occlusal contact? that would be nice. Currently, we use red/blue articulating paper (sometimes acetate with one side black). making sure the paper doesn't move around and try to achieve balanced contact and I wonder how this can be done digitally.
 
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shakkazulu

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Hi, yes you can. We use exocad to design and Nextdent 5100 to print them. very happy with the results.
Hi, yes you can. We use exocad to design and Nextdent 5100 to print them. very happy with the results.
Hi Kevin. We used to make our night guards with Eclipse, which was discontinued. So we went to heat cure overnight and we think it’s too labor intensive (I don’t),so my lab went digital with night guards. We have a Nexdent 5100, so we started using it for night guards. We have a Kavo scanner and a 3shape scanner. So we scan models, outsource the design, and print them. They were coming out loose and warped, the occlusal surface was rough and needed to be spotted in. We found that repositioning the night guards in the tray, adding more supports, and improving post printing has helped, but the resolution is terrible. There is what I call “wood grain “ in the intaglio. This intaglio works like a saw blade. When I relieve the very slight undercuts to get the night guards on the model, (the ‘top’ of the blades),my retention gets lost. Also when seating, the doctors models get a destroyed in the anterior. I asked if we could improve the resolution and was told that the only FDA approved material for the Nextdent is ortho rigid and there is a limitation on the resolution. Almost all The night guards were coming out too loose -I asked our designer to do no block out and make them as tight as they would be in analog and they still came out loose once I relieved the undercuts. We stopped using the nexdent. I saw a thread here about people using cheap printers. The photographs of models printed from these looked better so one of our employees bought one and printed a model that had much less wood grain, so we bought one ( an elegoo Mars 3 ) and it prints better, but only slightly, same resolution issues, and slight warping. I can run boiling water over the night guard When it’s on the model and press down And that helps. I suspect that the warping is a post printing issue. But the wood grain is still there, again due to material resolution limitations. But the fit is slightly better. Do you have this wood grain issue with your nexdent? Is there a way to eliminate the grain?
If you are having success with your printer, could I ask you a huge favor? Could I send you a design to print so I can show my people that the nexdent can print good night guards? I would go back to the nexdent if the resolution could be better.
If I were to advise someone wanting to go digital with night guards, I’d tell them to research a material that gets good resolution ( if there is a material that gets no wood grain) then buy the printer that supports it. It seems that no matter what resolution the printer is capable of, there are severe limitations with the resolution of the material you use.
To me, digital is not ready to make night guards until the resolution (material) can be improved. Is this true or are we doing something wrong? People on DLN are printing night guards and claim success but I am not tech savvy enough to guide my people to get good results. Please help! I would go to a lab anywhere in the U.S. to learn how to print right and then teach my printer person what to do. I am just a tech, but I deal with the problems and so I end up having to try to solve them.
 
tehnik

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I have printed keystone keysplint soft with asiga and after just one print and adjustment the fit is perfect. I can adjust the printing thickness to 0.01mm and there are no lines on the splint. I was between asiga and nextdent but being locked down to materials is just a big no.
 
rkm rdt

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Lines on the nightguard
lines on her face ,
she pretended not to notice she was caught up in the race.

I send the files to the folks with the nicest printer,
and go to the lake on Friday.
 
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shakkazulu

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Lines on the nightguard
lines on her face ,
she pretended not to notice she was caught up in the race.

I send the files to the folks with the nicest printer,
and go to the lake on Friday.
In terms of resolution and quality, that might be a good option. Who do you send them to, how much do they charge, and do they get rid of the lines?
 
rkm rdt

rkm rdt

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In terms of resolution and quality, that might be a good option. Who do you send them to, how much do they charge, and do they get rid of the lines?
Argen does a good job at a fair price.
They can send them unpolished which have the topographical lines.
ask for polished and the lines are gone.
I have had no complaints from my drs.
 
LuthorCorp

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We design and print 16-20 splints a day using the rapidshape and they have all come out really well, comparable to our conventional splints in much less time.

No complaints
 
Chalky

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We design and print 16-20 splints a day using the rapidshape and they have all come out really well, comparable to our conventional splints in much less time.

No complaints
out of interest what printer/s do you have and what material are you using? i currently am milling 10 - 12 a day and as soon as my new lab is done our printers will be set up to take on the load! Milling gives me great results, but the costs associated are pretty high! I can wait to be printing everything.
 
LuthorCorp

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out of interest what printer/s do you have and what material are you using? i currently am milling 10 - 12 a day and as soon as my new lab is done our printers will be set up to take on the load! Milling gives me great results, but the costs associated are pretty high! I can wait to be printing everything.
We print on a rapidshape D40II using keysplint material, works like a charm, can easily print 18 splints every 5-6 hours.
 
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Scott Raab

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Does anyone print night guards?

If so, which printer do you use?
Did you face any problems? (Such as guard not fitting in patients mouth, breaking)
Yes I am printing Night Guards. I have the Nextdent 5600 . They are good BUT they DO NOT HAVE CLEAR!!! The color is Blue.
Some the patients like to wear the Nightguards during the day. The color is definitely an issue. You have to explain to the Dr. first about the color. 3D Systems says they are working on a clear but I have not seen it yet. Besides that the printer is awesome.
 
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I have printed keystone keysplint soft with asiga and after just one print and adjustment the fit is perfect. I can adjust the printing thickness to 0.01mm and there are no lines on the splint. I was between asiga and nextdent but being locked down to materials is just a big no.
Do you have any issue with that resin? After couple of prints there are weird clumps forming in the tray. Do you experience something similar?
 
tehnik

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I don't. How are you storing the material and tray? I am keeping the material in tray in the original black plastic box.
 
Car 54

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Lines on the nightguard
lines on her face ,
she pretended not to notice she was caught up in the race.

I send the files to the folks with the nicest printer,
and go to the lake on Friday.

Was she also terminally pretty?

 
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