[3dprinter-general] 3d Denture

[Gregor Riepl]

Hi Peter,

*raises eyebrow*

This is hardly the right place to ask such a question, and I'm hardly a
specialist on the topic. But I do know a few things about teeth prosthetics,
as a friend of mine used to work for a company that builds CNC milling
machines for ceramic tooth replacements.

Before you start looking into making your own dentures, here's a few general
caveats you should take into account:

- Mouth tissue is very sensitive and can detect even tiniest dents, frictions
and uneven areas in anything you touch. We're talking about, maybe, 10s of
micrometers here.
- Human tissue adapts: If you force it into a certain shape or constantly
apply pressure/pain, it will give way, grow into the new shape or even become
desensitized to the pain.
- Normally, professionally made dentures are built in a way that they don't
cause excessive friction/pain. If your jaw doesn't adapt, then you might want
to consult with a different dentist/surgeon or order a denture made out of a
different material.
- Your jaw has very strong muscles. If you build artificial teeth out of a
cheap material such as common thermoplasts (ABS, PC, ...), it will not
withstand the grinding and biting force your jaw exposes it to. Such a
replacement will wither, bend and break very quickly. There's a reason why
good teeth inlays are made of very strong materials, such as ceramics or even
metal alloys. And you certainly don't want any plastic shards in your mouth,
your stomach or your lung!
- Making a 3D model with micrometer accuracy is difficult, unless you have a
very high resolution 3D scanner. Extrapolating from photos or using a low-res
depth scanner (such as Kinect) will not give satisfactory results.

That being said, there is material and printing technologies available that
you can use. Look into https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_laser_sintering
for example.

Aside from that, this might also be useful: https://formlabs.com/materials/dental/
Keep in mind though, that the materials they sell are not made for permanent
prostheses. But they can be used for making die-casts.

As for scanning, most products that are not prohibitively expensive are
probably not accurate enough. But you might get away with some manual
post-processing. See here for some examples in the 100 micrometer range:
https://www.3dnatives.com/en/top-10-low-cost-3d-scanners280320174/

Since you're working with live human tissue, I would be very careful with what
you do - You don't want to hurt yourself more than necessary or even endanger
your health or life!

Good luck!