Three Dimensional Printing – From A Pediatric Dentist’s Perspective

Abstract

In the digital era, the conventional techniques of manufacturing have been replaced by additive manufacturing using the digital data captured. This advent of manufacturing has been trending in medical field in the early beginning of the 20th century and now it’s trending in all biomedical and allied healthcare including dentistry. Additive manufacturing is gaining rapid potential in nearly all fields of dentistry. It differs from formative and subtractive manufacturing in that the object is "printed" in the additive manufacturing process by adding the building material layer by layer. In pediatric dentistry,3D printing has gained its way by its child friendly practice tool with the advent of intra oral scanners. This 3D printing has various roles in taking pediatric dentistry to its next era – digital era –leading to customised, child friendly, painless holistic pediatric dental practice.