3D Printing Enhances Dental Surgeries and Delights Patients
“3D printing has helped our dental surgical center by enabling us to perform more accurate, precise operations while saving our practice time and money as well”
– Wong Keung Mun, Founder & Managing Director at T32 Dental Centre
The Limitations of 2D Images
Since 2005, T32 Dental Centre in Singapore has been a leader in the dental services industry in Southeast Asia. One of the key factors of their success has been their ability to adopt the latest technologies in order to stay on top of the competition; however, T32 has recently taken on a giant initiative forward.
Dentists and doctors have traditionally relied on flat, 2D images to perform dental surgeries. With this in mind, doctors were limited in their ability to know exactly where to operate and locate areas where implants were necessary.
Technology since then has advanced with the fruition of 3D imaging. Doctors are now able to scan a patient’s jaw pain-free to identify problems, determine its severity and devise the proper treatment procedure. Unfortunately, this process took a long time to complete and was very expensive.
The Value of 3D Printing
With the addition of the Objet Eden260V 3D Printer from Stratasys, T32 was able to take advantage of the latest 3D printing technology had to offer. By printing personalized models for patients from CAD files, doctors were able to produce customized surgical guides in a matter of hours. These guides are installed onto the patient’s teeth prior to surgery to provide the exact placement, angle, and depth that the implant procedure required. Additionally, 3D printing enables doctors to print models of a patient’s jaw in order to practice and rehearse crucial actions before heading into surgery.
Stratasys 3D printers help prepare the doctors at T32 for surgery in order to address any challenging or vital decisions beforehand. Guesswork is also reduced as the printed models and surgical guides help diminish the possibility for human error. As a result, surgeries are faster, more accurate and ultimately safer for the patient.
Yam Weng Fei, a former implant surgery patient at T32 says, “I was impressed with how smoothly the procedure went. It was minimally invasive and more comfortable- I hardly felt anything. I think using the 3D model definitely helped make the surgery successful and I would highly recommend it to others.”
Wong Keung Mun, Founder and Managing Director at T32 Dental Centre adds, “3D printing has helped our dental surgical center by enabling us to perform more accurate, precise operations while saving our practice time and money as well.”