Side hussle help- Creating a Freelance nightguard design, modeling printing, essix retainers business...?

[ItsKeeN]

I was recently fired with no warning. I have a few opportunities available that hopefully go well, but i'm looking to get something started on the side. I have about 6 months of crown/bridge design experience in ZZ modellier, and i've seen the exocad/3shape workflows for nightguards which seems easy so I was wondering if someone could suggest some more affordable or even free(i have a tiny bit of Blender experience) design programs?
I just found today a craigslist post for an Anycubic M3 Resin Printer with the wash/cure unit for $500. If I get this, do i have a shot at at least getting a return on my investment? any and all tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rkm rdt]

I have a hunch your ex boss caught wind of your “side hustle “.

 

[KingGhidorah]

A 500 dollar printer, a couple YouTube videos, and a free software that isn’t set up to do nightguards? Yeah you’ll do great, go for it.

 

[Toothman19]

It's not rocket science as long as you can follow the workflow, but it does take practice. Check out the 3d dental printing groups on facebook

 

[sirmorty]

Download Medit link software. It's pretty amazing for being free.

You can actually edit scans and make models and night guards pretty easily if you have some experience in CAD it should be pretty easy for you to familiarize yourself with the software.

Phrozen Printers are relatively inexpensive and lots of Dental Materials are validated for them. Definitely look into those if you're trying to do it on a budget.

These 3d printing companies are in direct competition with labs.
They offer design services. Even have courses directly marketed to Dental Clinics for their assistants and hygienest to finish and glaze 3d printed materials.

Everyone wants to be a Dental Technician for some reason.

We all know that there can be a bit of a learning curve and sometimes Prints fail for a plethora of reasons. Trying to figure out why is the hard part.

 

[tuyere]

The really expensive part of printing nightguards isn't necessarily the printer, it's the post-processing using validated equipment. You can't roll your own nitrogen-shielded cure-box like hobbyists usually do for hobby-tier work, and you just can't cure nightguards properly in open atmosphere.
...well, you *could*, but I'm of the school of thought that we really can't screw around with workflows on anything printed that's also going to live in someone's mouth for 8 hours a day for the next couple of years. Resins are unavoidably-nasty compounds unless thoroughly and correctly treated after printing, and basic ethical considerations demand we don't cut corners there.

 

[tuyere]

Also- thinking you can design nightguards without either a dental CAD suite, or even a handle on a non-dental CAD suite, is... off the mark, to put it mildly. It's not going to happen without dental CAD, even if you already had a good handle on a mesh-based CAD platform, which you don't.

To try to be constructive: find a niche that isn't being filled, because you absolutely cannot compete with big companies already doing what you're trying to do. 50 people can print a nightguard, and they'll all do it better than you. Find something that dentists need that they can't readily get now, it could be, I don't know, 6-hour turnaround on rush-rush-rush jobs, or some non-nightguard thing that dentists could use but don't currently have that you can design. For example, I design and print a lot of custom tool holders/organizers for other departments, little jigs and tools they need for a specific job that they can't improvise, stuff like that. I don't think I could make a business of it by itself, but it's me meeting a need that legitimately can't be met otherwise in a dental lab full of professionals.

 

[ItsKeeN]

The really expensive part of printing nightguards isn't necessarily the printer, it's the post-processing using validated equipment. You can't roll your own nitrogen-shielded cure-box like hobbyists usually do for hobby-tier work, and you just can't cure nightguards properly in open atmosphere.
...well, you *could*, but I'm of the school of thought that we really can't screw around with workflows on anything printed that's also going to live in someone's mouth for 8 hours a day for the next couple of years. Resins are unavoidably-nasty compounds unless thoroughly and correctly treated after printing, and basic ethical considerations demand we don't cut corners there.

Thanks for the insight. What about printing models and selling those and doing suck down retainers? even if i get a doc to send me 1 scan a day, that's something to start with. how do i get there?

 

[tuyere]

Thanks for the insight. What about printing models and selling those and doing suck down retainers? even if i get a doc to send me 1 scan a day, that's something to start with. how do i get there?

I would ask- why would the doctors do that? Why go with you instead of who they already have and is a known quantity? People will kick you work here and there to do the little guy a solid, but you can't live off that.
Printing models is easy to do to a decent standard, and post-processing is trivial, but that's only one part of a job. Given your constricts and limitations, I would try something like, I don't know, approaching other smallish labs and offering to handle some of their model printing. If they're using less of their printers to print models they can be printing more nightguards (or whatever it is),which means they can take more work on overall. Be their overflow print capacity. Or if they're down the street, offer to do rush model reprints, something like that.
With just a hobbyist printer and without any particular complementary skills or equipment, you just can't do much of anything yourself from beginning to end, is what it comes down to at the end of the day. Work within that and specialize in one aspect of it that other companies don't want to deal with. People don't make their money off of models, so it's a means to an end, and if it gets done on time and for a decent price that's just as good as doing it in-house, from most people's perspective.

The trickier part of having this kind of working relationship is being prompt and consistent. You need to work with their schedule and needs, which rarely makes it much of a 'side hustle' (which I don't like as a term, as an aside- it puts a fake entrepreneurial shine on people having to work multiple jobs just to pay rent, and it emphasizes that you won't be giving whatever your full attention, even if you do).

 

[Brett Hansen CDT]

Thanks for the insight. What about printing models and selling those and doing suck down retainers? even if i get a doc to send me 1 scan a day, that's something to start with. how do i get there?

Where do you live? We will need to replace our posterior crown 3 shape designer(along with other lab jobs, but that is the primary) in about a year. Our lab is in central IN

 

[ItsKeeN]

Where do you live? We will need to replace our posterior crown 3 shape designer(along with other lab jobs, but that is the primary) in about a year. Our lab is in central IN

I'm in TX

 

[Sda36]

I was recently fired with no warning. I have a few opportunities available that hopefully go well, but i'm looking to get something started on the side. I have about 6 months of crown/bridge design experience in ZZ modellier, and i've seen the exocad/3shape workflows for nightguards which seems easy so I was wondering if someone could suggest some more affordable or even free(i have a tiny bit of Blender experience) design programs?
I just found today a craigslist post for an Anycubic M3 Resin Printer with the wash/cure unit for $500. If I get this, do i have a shot at at least getting a return on my investment? any and all tips would be greatly appreciated.

Become a FedEx / Purolator delivery person, make more than a lot of lab techs. This is a Very sad fact.

 

[rkm rdt]

How about buying a Trios 3 for around 20k and offer an on site scanning service?
You could then train them and provide exclusive support in return for any and all restorations by your lab .
Once you have established a trust with them through your proven workflow and charming personality, you can encourage them to invest in their own IOS.
Now you have a loyal customer and you can move on to the next interested client.
You take the knowledge you have learned from the previous client experience and refine your approach to the next one and so on.
Since you are setting yourself apart from the other guys, you get to make the rules and charge accordingly.
The best part is that while the other guys sales reps are sitting in the waiting room, you are standing chairside.

 

[Smilewire]

I'm in TX

If you're not a CDT in Texas you can not own a lab. There needs to be at least one CDT in a lab in Texas.

 

[GG - J]

If you're not a CDT in Texas you can not own a lab. There needs to be at least one CDT in a lab in Texas.

was just about to add that and to the other point above

Become a FedEx / Purolator delivery person, make more than a lot of lab techs.

This is a Very sad fact.

 

[Flipperlady]

In a perfect world that's a great idea! In the real world it isn't so perfect, such as last minute cases at Christmas in which the doc says they are headed out of town and need these back in a week, and surprise they are for cases other than night guards and no way to contact dentist while they are out of town...