3D printing shows its teeth

Dentists are using the technology to make precise models of patients’ faces, jaws and teeth, so as to plan procedures such as implants and facial surgery

 

Few people would think of dentists as imaginative innovators. But their public image, clouded by long episodes of pain or boredom in the dentist’s chair, obscures the fact that many of them are enthusiastic developers of technology in the cause of healthy teeth and gums.

 

Take 3D printing – making solid objects by building up ultra-thin layers of material from a computer-controlled printer. “3D printing has recently captured the public imagination, but most 3D printers are churning out plastic junk,” says Andrew Dawood, who works in London’s Wimpole Street. “Dentists have been using 3D printing for 10 years, to make things that really can’t be made in any other way.”

 

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