Stratasys pioneered 3D printing jetting technology, becoming the first company to commercialize PolyJet multi-material jetting and full-color printing. Within the dental team, our focus has been on discovering applications where this cutting-edge technology can deliver significant advantages. Building upon our successful introduction of biocompatible applications and color dental models, turned our attention to dentures.
Through in-depth conversations with dentists and dental laboratories, we actively listened to their challenges and gained valuable insights into the denture creation process. These discussions revealed the primary pain points, propelling us into an extensive development process. We collaborated with renowned universities and dental experts to formulate new materials that met the mechanical properties and biocompatibility requirements of permanent dentures. We also conducted thorough research to understand the complex shade requirements of both base and teeth, ensuring that we could offer a solution to a diverse patient population. The culmination of our development efforts was the creation of the TrueDent* solution, which is based on TrueDent resin and printed with the J5 DentaJet PolyJet 3D printer.
Traditionally, conventional dentures have been known for their aesthetic appeal, but producing them is a labor-intensive process that relies on highly skilled technicians who are becoming more difficult to find. This scarcity of skilled professionals adds to the challenges faced by dental laboratories. Furthermore, as each dental appliance is created, clinical data like impressions, master casts, and relationship records are damaged or destroyed. This loss of data makes reproducing an exact replica of a denture virtually impossible.
While current 3D printed dentures have introduced digital workflows that allow for the storage of original patient records and prosthesis data, there are still limitations in the process. Typically, the denture base and teeth are printed separately using different resins. The subsequent bonding process introduces variables that can lead to improper alignment of teeth to the base, ultimately causing debonding issues.
We’re excited to present a new solution to these challenges: TrueDent™, the first FDA-cleared (Class II) resin for 3D printing of dentures and temporary crowns and bridges. This resin, combined with PolyJet technology on the J5 DentaJet, enables production of accurate aesthetic full and partial dentures, providing patients with fit, form and function.
Here’s what separates the TrueDent resin and process from other workflows and dentures.
With the TrueDent solution, five resin colors — magenta, yellow, cyan, white, and clear — are digitally mixed to create the exact denture tooth and base shades desired. Our design software currently offers presets for 10 gingiva shades, 17 tooth shades with a two-layer structure, and two tooth shades with a three-layer structure and incisal translucency.
TrueDent is the first resin that enables dental laboratories to digitally mimic color variations on gingiva, including a patient’s capillaries. The base colors can also be used to create translucency at the tip of the teeth, allowing dentures to better match the appearane of the patient’s natural teeth.
TrueDent dentures are created in a single, continuous print of both the base and teeth, creating monolithic dentures that reduce the risk of tooth debonding. In the PolyJet process, each printed part is encapsulated by a unique gel-like support material that fully supports the entire denture surface and can easily be removed from the printed denture using a water jet process. This reduces the risk of shifts and dimensional changes that can occur in printed parts produced with other 3D printing processes.
In our conversations with dentists and dental laboratories that use TrueDent, we’ve heard that the try-in denture printed with TrueDent is often accurate enough to be the final product. Dentists are finding that they don’t need to do adjustments to get a full and definitive denture, allowing them to send their patients home with the try-in. This from-the-start accuracy reduces the need to reline and adjust, saving time and money for dentists and patients alike.
The Stratasys J5 DentaJet PolyJet printer utilizes the user-friendly GrabCAD Print software platform. With automated nesting, fleet management, performance monitoring, and remote printing capabilities, it simplifies the printing process. With a single click, users can select shades for denture bases and teeth. This scalable and flexible solution optimizes print jobs based on the number of prosthetics needed.
We continuously enhance TrueDent capabilities by collecting feedback from dental experts, customers, and strategic partners. Essentially, our GrabCAD software platform enables us to improve our customers' products and help them scale their business through software upgrades.
*Stratasys TrueDent™ is a light-curable resin indicated for the fabrication of dental appliances including removable full and partial dentures, denture bases, denture teeth, bridges, crowns, inlays, onlays, and veneers in dental laboratories. The material is an alternative to traditional heat-curable and auto polymerizing resins. Stratasys TrueDent™ is intended exclusively for professional dental work.
