Dentistry in the 3rd Dimension
Eureka!! No, not our beloved little border town to the northwest, but the moment...the Eureka moment. Also known as the “Aha” moment, the Eureka moment is the common human experience of suddenly understanding a previously incomprehensible problem or concept. I might also add it’s the sudden understanding or discovery of something never before known to the discoverer.
I experienced a moment like this some years ago while I was studying dentistry in San Francisco. My wife and I are both small town kids from rural Alberta and rural Arizona respectively. So to find ourselves living our daily lives amongst the iconic streets and architecture of San Francisco felt surreal to say the least.
It was there in 2010 amongst the cutting edge tech companies of the bay area that we happened upon a device fabricating a figurine before our very eyes. A cube approximately a square foot in dimension with clear glass on 3 of the vertical walls. A cube that said “MakerBot” on it. A cube that was printing in three dimensions.
The object being printed was crude, the process you could tell was novel and unrefined...barely out of beta. My wife was not overly impressed, but inside my head I was having a Eureka moment. I could see the concept for its potential and started spewing forth my predictions of the spaces this technology would ultimately invade and revolutionize. I very specifically said, “they will build houses like this one day.” Google it.
As I mentioned, this early version lacked precision. Or in industry terms it had a low resolution. Like a photo, or early computer graphics it was pixelated. Things were being measured in terms of millimeters. While that might sound small and precise, in the world of restorative dental materials we measure resolution/precision in terms of micrometers, or thousandths of a millimeter.
So at the time, in 2010, just as I had seen enormous advancements in computer technology throughout my life, I knew that it was only a matter of time until advancements in 3D printing tech reached an acceptable level of resolution for dental applications. It should come as no surprise, especially since I’m writing this article, that the time is now and it’s incredible.
Over the last decade, concurrent advancements in 3D digital oral scanners, 3D Cone-beam computed tomography systems (3D X-Rays much like an MRI), and 3D printing provide us an incredibly diverse toolkit when it comes to practicing dentistry. From simple applications like fabricating night-guards, athletic mouthguards, and even bleach trays that fit better than their analog versions. To complex digitally guided surgical procedures allowing a patient with no teeth to have a permanently retained implant bridge in the space of a few hours. All done with pin-point accuracy without the need for goopy impression material.
Digital planning and execution allows for dental procedures and surgeries to be done as minimally invasive as possible. There’s no guesswork. The surgery is planned digitally and surgical guides are 3D printed allowing the dentist to place the implant exactly where it needs to be. This was all done free-handed prior. I hope you can understand just how cool this is.
The type of 3D printing utilized by the industry leader in dental is a resin based DLP printing process. Unlike what you might think of or visualize when you think of 3D printing, this method uses a resin filled tub. This resin polymerizes (hardens) by exposure to light and then lifts out of the resin bath fully formed. It’s honestly something straight out of science fiction.
With this type of resin printing, we are only limited by the types of resins being created. Within the past year alone several resins have been approved for permanent crown and filling applications and the results I'm seeing are incredible.
Get excited folks. This is a shift in dentistry. Just like digital scanning took about 20 years to fully take over with digital impressions, this is the future for a lot of dental’s common restorative and surgical procedures. It’s only going to get better and it’s all available at Smile Montana Dental Center.
As always, thank you so much for not only reading my article, but for making it to the end. You are in no doubt a lovely person with an incredible smile. I see you out there. Happy Holidays everyone. This winter is going to be great with spirits bright and powder plentiful.
Read Dentistry in 3rd Dimension by Dr. John F. Miller, DDS, in 406 Woman magazine.