VOXELTEK announced a new all-in-one 3D printer for producing dental aligners.
The “Smilemaker” is capable of 3D printing clear aligners, but also handles the post-processing steps that previously were performed manually. VOXELTEK explains:
“The “Smilemaker” Clear Aligner Printer is the world’s first device that fully automates the aligner manufacturing process. It integrates 3D model printing, thermoforming, and laser trimming into a single platform, eliminating the need for manual post-processing. This allows for continuous, 24-hour aligner production without human intervention.”
The Smilemaker is also quite compact, with a desktop footprint of only 800 x 300 mm. That makes it ideal for use in dental offices.
This is part of the “chairside” concept, which is turning the dental industry upside down.
Traditionally, patients would be diagnosed and measured at the dental clinic, with the collected data then sent off to a central dental provider to produce the required parts. This process involves multiple visits to the dentist by the patient, and sometimes considerable time in-between for part production and delivery.
“Chairside” is a new concept where the dental service provider is cut out of the picture because the dental clinic itself has the equipment to produce the parts. Sometimes this can even be done while the patient waits in the chair, hence the term, “chairside”.
The problem has been that most dental appliances are produced using resin technology, which requires tricky post-processing, including washing, curing, and sometimes trimming. That alone deters dentists from proceeding because they are already very busy and unlikely to hire more staff to do this work unless it is a large dental office with lots of parts being produced.
Other dental solutions have attempted to simplify the work in various ways, to varying degrees of success. Here it seems that VOXELTEK has basically eliminated the manual work entirely.
That should be an extremely attractive feature for potential customers, as it removes one of the reasons they’ve rejected dental 3D printing in the past. If they can get a machine that can produce the parts at the touch of a button and not much more effort, they are more likely to purchase it.
Via VOXELTEK
