Reproduction of human dental models using different 3D printing techniques

Abstract

A three-dimensional (3D) printing has been contributing enormously across areas of dentistry including treatment planning, prosthesis designing, dental restorations, and surgical procedures. A successful dentistry treatment with minute analysis can be done more effectively, using 3D printing as compared to conventional fabrication methods. In this article, four different 3D printing techniques namely PolyJet, fused deposition modelling (FDM), selective laser sintering (SLS), and stereolithography (SLA) were used to reproduce dental models of five subjects as references. Critical dimensions of these 3D printed dental models including crown height and width were then compared with Standard Tessellation Language (STL) digital image files. Average relative errors for SLA, SLS, PolyJet, and FDM printed models with their respective STL files were calculated as 0.3%, 0.4%, 0.8%, and 1.7%, respectively, for crown height and 0.2%, 0.4%, 1.0%, and 2.0% for crown width in the same order, indicating a relative error trend as SLA < SLS < PolyJet < FDM in ascending order. Raw material cost for 3D printing a single dental model used in FDM ($3.12) was most economical in comparison to SLS ($3.63), SLA ($5.18), and PolyJet ($7.84). Time consumed for 3D printing the same model was highest for SLA (180 min) in comparison to FDM (120 min), PolyJet (55 min), and SLS (40 min). Therefore, a combination of factors such as dimensional accuracy, time consumption, and cost-effectiveness essential in manufacturing have been considered to suggest the most suitable 3D printing technique in the field of dentistry for treatment planning, prosthesis designing, dental restorations, and surgical procedures.