3D printed Night guard occlusion problem

[Jin ahn]

Hi,
Lately, we get some complaints from few doctors regard to the occlusion problem with 3D printed night guard.
According to what they said, putting the night guard on patient's mouth, our night guard always having too heavy posterior bite, but no any bite for anterior,
which cause them to grind extra on posterior side which makes the posterior side really thin and less durable.
We're actually taking extra care with our night guard, so always checking the bites after the polishing and send them out,
so i don't think there is any problem with what our technicians are doing so far.
I understand that the metal articulators cannot be always function same as the real jaw system which varies from person to person,
but from what doctors explained about this problem, it seems most of the night guards that we've been sent for long time have similar problems.
Therefore, we're looking for any solution. I wonder if other labs or clinics are having same problem with the night guard occlusion.

3D printer: Asiga Max
Resin: Keysplint Soft, Hard
Articulator:

CAD program: 3 Shape

 

[Ofirdavs]

are you using 3Shape's Splint Studio to design Night Guards, If you are then you should adapt your design based on certain positional movement, I am not quite sure why you are still using articulator even after generating the design like at which stage? if you are using splint studio then you should use articulator in the software by following the steps!!!

 

[Brett Hansen CDT]

My lab uses the same resin, software, and printer that you do. We do not do any occlusal adjusting our night guards after printing. I am attaching a link to a video that I used to learn how to design NG's in 3Shape. I also asked questions here around design, but I ended up just "trusting the process." I also have tweaked some things as I got feedback from our doctors. Pay special attention to how the bite is setup in the initial phase of design after the models are setup on the occlusal plane. I feel like this is what is leading to the problems your doctor is describing. If this works or doesn't work, please come back and leave feedback so we can all learn. There seems to be quite of bit of ambiguity when it comes to occlusion with these prosthesis. It's not as black and white as designing the occlusion on a crown.

 

[doug]

We have no issue using Exocad. We did fabricate about 30 night guards, for free, for the office next door to get our fit, occ;lusion and function worked-out.

They tell us is a 15 minute appt. Charge accordingly, just 'cause they're quick doesn't negate your skills and knowledge.

 

[mightymouse]

Agree with the responses. We use exocad and always use the virtual articulator. A trick I got from LMT last year was (for exocad) in the contact/interference color scale there are options other than intersection. If you select contact points it helps you see where exactly their hitting but may not be interfering. I always leave the smallest amount of blue color on the appliance (anterior and posterior) and haven’t had issues with occlusion. I also don’t adjust any occlusions and trust the computer. On a side note I have a doctor who swears by stopping the appliance at the second bicuspid. He said that the patient ends up chewing a whole in the posterior anyways and this was from before 3D printed nightguards were even a thing.