Dental 3D printing: head enterprises have entered, blue ocean market future is promising

With the continuous development of modern technology, the application of digital technology in the field of dentistry is becoming more and more widespread. Among them, dental 3D printing technology is an important direction in oral digital technology, which can provide dentists with more accurate and fast oral restoration solutions, widely used in orthodontics, oral restoration and oral implantation links, many domestic and foreign 3D printing head enterprises have to encode the dental track, the development of the market ushered in a hot moment.

3D Printing - A Revolutionary Innovation in Manufacturing Technology

3D printing technology changes the traditional manufacturing production mode. 3D printing, also known as Additive Manufacturing (Additive Manufacturing, AM), different from the traditional subtractive manufacturing, is a rapid prototyping technology, through the model of digital three-dimensional scanning, layered processing, with the help of digital manufacturing equipment similar to the printer, the use of materials are constantly superimposed on the formation of the required solid model. 3D printing technology is now widely used in aerospace, medical devices, construction, automotive, energy, jewelry design and other fields. The U.S. "Time" weekly additive manufacturing as "the top ten fastest-growing industries in the United States", the British "Economist" magazine believes that it will "with other digital production model to promote the realization of the third industrial revolution", China in the China's "14th Five-Year" Intelligent Manufacturing Development Plan, "Made in China 2025" and many other policy documents mention additive manufacturing.

Compared with traditional manufacturing technology (subtractive manufacturing), 3D printing does not need to make molds in advance, do not have to remove a large number of materials in the manufacturing process, and do not have to go through the complex forging process to get the final product, with the characteristics of "go to the molds, reduce waste, reduce inventory". In production, it can optimize the structure, save materials and energy, and greatly enhance the manufacturing efficiency.

Multiple process technology types, suitable for different downstream applications. The current mainstream 3D printing classification dimension is divided into metal 3D printing and non-metal printing according to the different materials used, and further differentiated by different technical characteristics. The mainstream technologies applied in metal 3D printing include selective laser melting (SLM), electron beam melting molding (EBM), laser near-net molding (LENS), and the raw materials used for printing are mostly iron, titanium, nickel, steel and other metal powders, which are mostly used in aerospace & military, medical devices and other fields with high product performance requirements; the mainstream technologies applied in non-metal 3D printing include selective laser sintering (SLS), light-curing molding, and light-curing molding (LCM). SLS), light-curing molding (SLA), fused deposition molding (FDM), three-dimensional stereo printing (3DP), material jet molding (PJ), etc., mostly used in industrial molds, recreational creativity, medical supplies and other non-standard product manufacturing. Some of these technologies (SLS and 3DP) can also use metal powder as the raw material for printing, but the mainstream market selection of plastic, resin, nylon, ceramics and other materials, so it is still categorized as non-metallic printing.

Global 3D printing has been developed for more than 40 years, domestic catching up step by step. Throughout the history of the development of the global 3D printing industry can be roughly divided into technology research and development, mass production and application, business profitability of three stages. 1980 to 1990 for the first stage, during the period of 3D printing patents, technology, prototypes have been born. 1990 to 2010 for the second stage, Europe and the United States is gradually formed with the influence of 3D printing companies, such as 3D Systems, Stratasys, EOS, etc., from the technology and theory of the prototype transition to the production of 3D printers and products. 2010 to the present is the third stage, the 3D printing industry ushered in rapid development, the leading companies continue to mergers and acquisitions. 2012 Stratasys and Object merger, the largest merger in the 3D printing industry, 3D Systems in 2010-2016 has completed the acquisition of Phenix. In 2016, 3D Systems successively completed the acquisition of Phenix Systems, Medical Modeling, Bot Object and other companies, and GE acquired 3D printing giants Concept Laser and Arcam in 2016, and the scale of business of each leading enterprise ushered in rapid development under mergers and acquisitions.

China's 3D printing industry started lagging behind Europe and the United States for about ten years, but the gap has gradually narrowed in recent years. China's 3D printing industry started in the early 1990s, by Tsinghua University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology and other colleges and universities in the government's financial support to start the research of additive manufacturing technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University in 1995 successfully developed a 3D printing prototype, between 2000 and 2010, the universities have realized the mainstream 3D printing technology such as SLA, SLS, FDM, SLM and so on. From 2011 to 2016, in the technology catching up stage, the number of patents related to 3D printing industry rapidly climbed from 5 in 2011 to 6,564 in 2016, and the technology level is approaching that of Europe and the United States.After 2016, the number of companies involved in the 3D printing business in China surged, and high-quality enterprises in the 3D printing industry such as Xianlin 3D, Fenghua ZhuoLi, JiaYi GaoKe, and LianTai Technology were listed on the New Third Board, and the industry was also listed on the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), and industrial and commercial companies were listed on the New Third Board. Listed on the New Third Board, industrial-grade metal printing leader Platinum Lite will be listed on the Science and Innovation Board in 2019, and become the first A-share listed 3D printing stock, China's 3D printing industry has gradually completed the transition from technology accumulation to commercialization, and the printed products have begun to be widely used in the fields of aerospace, medical, automotive and other fields.

3D printing in dentistry

Dental 3D printing refers to the combination of digital scanning and 3D printing, customized printing according to the three-dimensional data in the oral cavity of different patients, to achieve precision medicine and precision implantation, so that the commonly used dental medical supplies in terms of precision to improve the edge of the crown, the inner crowns and the dentition between the more intimate, to improve the clinical effect and patient comfort.

Dental 3D printing in the process is usually selected non-metallic SLA and DLP process, the upstream material selection of photosensitive polymers accounted for close to 80%, the rest of the raw material is mostly metal powder, widely used in orthodontics, oral restoration and oral implantation links, can be used to produce orthodontic appliances (including invisible orthodontic dental molds, lingual metal orthodontic appliances), dental implants (including crowns, abutments, surgical guides), removable Dental implants (including crowns, abutments, surgical guides), removable dentures (including metal brackets) and temporary teeth, dental working models, personalized trays and so on.

According to SmarTech, additively manufactured dental products will be worth up to $3.5 billion in 2021, with the market for porcelain crown applications valued at approximately $797 million, or 22.6%. In addition, the software market for 3D printed dentistry is sizable, with software sales of nearly $150 million in 2021. the global dental additive manufacturing market will reach $9 billion in 2028.

Compared with traditional hand-made oral restorations, dental 3D printing has the following advantages:

-High precision: dental 3D printing technology can accurately print complex shaped restorations based on digital models of the oral cavity, with high manufacturing precision and accurate dimensions.

-Fast: Dental 3D printing technology can print oral restorations quickly, thus shortening the manufacturing cycle and waiting time and accelerating the patient treatment process.

-Personalization: Dental 3D printing technology can be personalized according to the patient's oral digital model, which can meet the needs of different patients for oral restorations.

-Variety of material choices: Dental 3D printing technology can use a variety of different materials for manufacturing, such as resin, metal, ceramics, etc., which can meet the material needs of different restorations.

Dental 3D Scanning

While 3D scanning itself is not an application for dental 3D printing, it is the first step in the dental digitization workflow, where with the help of a 3D scanner, the inside of a patient's mouth is scanned, a digital model file is created, and then exported in a format such as STL can be 3D printed.

Dental crowns and bridges

Crowns and bridges are the most common products used in dental treatments because they can be used to replace missing teeth. Crowns are used to cover damaged or decayed teeth and bridges are used to replace missing teeth and consist of two crowns (one at each end) and certain denture bridges.

The traditional method of making dental crowns has many processes and a long production cycle, often requiring 6 to 7 days. The use of 3D printing is very convenient, only need to scan the patient's oral cavity with a 3D scanner, get the patient's oral dental data, imported into the appropriate application software to generate the patient's dental three-dimensional data, and then use a dental 3D printer to print out the patient's situation in line with the crown, the whole process relative to the traditional process can be shortened by half the time, in terms of production efficiency, precision, implantation cycle, and other aspects of advantage! The advantages in terms of production efficiency, precision, implant cycle and other aspects are remarkable.

Dentures

Dental model for dentists, not only can better direct observation of the patient's teeth, more importantly, can help dentists in the patient's surgery, can be better to find the precise location of the incision, to increase the success rate of the operation. The traditional method of making dental molds usually requires several steps such as taking molds, making plaster molds and trimming, which is time-consuming, laborious and prone to errors. 3D printing technology greatly simplifies the process of making dental molds by converting the patient's dental data into a digital model through 3D scanning, and then printing dental molds that match the accuracy of the patient's oral morphology with the dental 3D printers, which greatly shortens the time to make dental molds, improves production efficiency, and avoids the need for traditional molds. This greatly reduces the time for making dental molds, improves production efficiency, and avoids errors caused by human operation in the traditional way of making molds, and, at the same time, realizes personalized customization to meet the needs of different patients.

Aliguner and night guards

As consumer awareness of orthodontics increases and orthodontic technology matures, 3D printing is becoming more and more widely used in the production of fully transparent aligners and night guard uses. The process involves a dentist or orthodontist scanning a patient's teeth, followed by a software application that generates a 3D solid model of the patient's teeth, which is then printed using an ultra-high definition dental 3D printer. The main advantage of using 3D printing to produce night guards and aligners is the high efficiency. Dozens of aligners are needed for each patient's orthodontic procedure, and mass production can be accomplished in a few hours with better accuracy using 3D printing technology.

This article mainly introduces the concepts related to 3D printing technology, international and domestic market development status and specific applications in the dental field, and in the next article we will introduce the dental 3D printing market landscape and major brands.