Abstract
The recent introduction of three-dimensional (3D) printing is revolutionizing dentistry and is even being applied to orthodontic treatment of malocclusion. Clear, personalized, removable aligners are a suitable alternative to conventional orthodontic appliances, offering a more comfortable and efficient solution for patients. Including improved oral hygiene and aesthetics during treatment. Contemporarily, clear aligners are produced by a thermoforming process using various types of thermoplastic materials. The thermoforming procedure alters the properties of the material, and the intraoral environment further modifies the properties of a clear aligner, affecting overall performance of the material. Direct 3D printing offers the creation of highly precise clear aligners with soft edges, digitally designed and identically reproduced for an entire set of treatment aligners; offering a better fit, higher efficacy, and reproducibility. Despite the known benefits of 3D printing and the popularity of its dental applications, very limited technical and clinical data are available in the literature about directly printed clear aligners. The present article discusses the advantages of 3D printed aligners in comparison to thermoformed ones, describes the current state of the art, including a discussion of the possible road blocks that exist such as a current lack of approved and marketed materials and limited existence of aligner specific software. The present review suggests the suitability of 3D direct printed aligners is superior to that of thermoformed manufactured aligners because of the prior’s increased accuracy, load resistance, and lower deformation. It is an overall more stable way to produce an aligner where submillimeter movements can make a difference in treatment outcome. Direct 3D printing represents a complex method to control the thickness of the aligner and therefore has a better ability to control the force vectors that are used to produce tooth movement. There is currently no other approved material on the market that can do this. The conclusion of this article is that we encourage further in vitro and in vivo studies to test these new technologies and materials.
Highlights
A growing number of patients and doctors are choosing orthodontic treatment with aligners, which is effective and does not compromise the quality of their daily life. This is in comparison to conventional orthodontic treatment with fixed orthodontic appliances, such as orthodontic brackets and an archwire used to apply corrective forces to move the teeth into the desired position
It has been shown that after storage in artificial saliva, the elastic modulus and tensile yield stress were modified, generally reducing the mechanical properties of the polymers investigated [19]. These alterations on the aligner structure caused by the thermoforming process and intraoral environment probably influence the clinical efficacy; the modify in mechanical properties can lead to a side effects like the potential loss of efficacy due to the presence of undesired orthodontic forces acting on teeth and their attachments
Three-dimensional printing is used in multiple fields of dentistry. 3D printing technology is a suitable method of fabrication of clear aligners and offers several advantages over the conventional thermoforming process
Summary
1960s, rings weresubstituted substiby the first brackets to support wires made from stainless steel, which offered several tuted by the first brackets to support wires made from stainless steel, which offered several advantages, such advantages, suchasashigh highstrength, strength,durability, durability,reduced reducedfriction, friction,improved improvedsalivary salivaryflow, flow,less food collection, and they were relatively easy to form. Initial use of traditional stainless steel archwire was eventually rereplaced by clear clear optical fiber wire, epoxy coated wire, titanium placed by fiber (Optiflex),. This technological development led led to the third plasticcoated coatedwire wireand andBioforce. This revolutionary development was aligners for orthodontic purposes appeared [4] This revolutionary development was mainly ofof patients seeking more comfortable andand lessless intrusive mainlydriven drivenby bythe thepressure pressure patients seeking more comfortable intrusive orthodontic procedures for their teeth.
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