3D printing of complex ceramic dental implant abutments by using Direct Inkjet Printing

Abstract

The demand for dental implants has been steadily increasing in recent years. At the same time, the desire for patient-specific esthetic implant-supported reconstructions has also grown. The core element of an implant-supported reconstruction is the implant abutment, which performs as the base for the cementation of the implant crown. The abutment can be produced accurately and individually with the additive manufacturing process Direct Inkjet Printing, which is based on the layer-by-layer printing of ceramic suspensions. For the production of complex structures, such as abutments, a support structure is required, which can subsequently be removed without leaving any residue. In this project, a carbon black suspension was chosen as support material. To ensure the printed structures maintain their shape, the suspensions must not influence each other. Therefore, the rheological properties and printing behavior of the suspensions must be adjusted to each other, for which additives were investigated and printing tests performed. We demonstrated that proper additives (e.g. Triton X-100) and process parameters (e.g. component arrangement), allow the production of complex structures, like abutments, and may enable a new way of manufacturing dental implant abutments.