How Does 3D Printing Work?

The availability of chairside intraoral scanners equipment offers numerous advantages over traditional impression methods including speed, convenience, and patient acceptance.

The main advantage in this digital data capture is with seamless integration into the digital dental laboratory workflow,

The image recorded with an intraoral scanner is in the form of a CAD file which is then sent to the 3D printer and model is printed from it
Liquid resin is selectively exposed to a curing light source to form very thin layers of solid material.

These solidified layers are incrementally stacked upon one another to create a final three-dimensional dental prosthetics.

The thickness and orientation of each layer plays a significant role in the properties of the final model.

In the case of 3D-printed dentures, either a denture baseplate or denture teeth are designed to fit the specific curvature of the patient’s dental arch.

3D printing is a digital technology manufacturing process that utilizes computer software for producing digitally designed objects by connecting materials layer by layer in a successive approach.