How to Set Supports for
Dental 3D Models
3D printing has given rise to a wide variety of applications,
including dental 3D printing, which is projected to grow by
roughly 30% by 2025. Dental 3D printing allows dentists and lab
technicians to print out different types of dental models such as
crowns at much faster speed than previously possible.
As there are numerous types of dental models, these require
different types of support settings so that the dental models can
be printed out flawlessly. Some dental models may not require
any supports at all. Setting supports on any 3D model, especially
dental models, are extremely important as it anchors your models
to the building plate and ensures a higher 3D printing success
rate.
To learn more about what the different support settings on
CHITUBOX mean, please click here. In order to improve your
dental 3D printing experience, Phrozen has prepared a number of
tutorials just for you.
What's the Process of 3D Printing Dental Models?
So, how exactly are dental models created?
First, the dentist needs to scan the patient’s teeth with an intraoral
scanner instead of collecting a physical impression of their teeth.
Next, data collected from the scanner will be imported into dental
software such as Exocad where teeth can be designed, after which
the fi le can be imported into Formware or Phrozen DS Slicer so
that it can be sliced.
Lastly, relevant supports need to be added to your dental models
before being sliced and printed out. We’ll be looking at four
different types of dental models and the supports they require:
Dental Model Supports
Dental arches can be printed horizontally by being placed flat on
the plate while using slicer software. This is typically the fastest
way to print dental models but it takes up the most space on the
building plate.
In the example above, the Sonic 4K can print out 3 dental arches
in one go without the need for any supports. This way, the printing
process will take roughly 1.5 hours.