Ceramic 3D Dental Implants A Look Into the Future of Plano, Texas
Ceramic 3D Dental Implants A Look Into the Future of Plano, Texas
Plano, Texas - While we mentioned before that titanium is a traditional and longstanding material for dental implants, it is not the only one out there. In fact, there is a push for new materials that are less likely to deteriorate over time or cause an allergic reaction. This push to find better materials combined with the age of technology is enough to lead to interesting results. 3d printed ceramic dental implants. They carry the same structure with abutments and crowns. However, they are also lightweight, easier to produce, and arguably as tough as diamond.
There is still so much we don't understand though. For instance, how does ceramic get to be as hard as a diamond? Is there a way for ceramic to fix itself into the gumline? When did 3d printing get into the mix?
Dental Implants Made of Ceramic Steel
The ceramic is in the dentists' office isn't the same as the type of ceramic seen on a porcelain doll. It is a compound called "ceramic steel". The scientific compound is zirconium dioxide or zirconia. It has no thermal conductivity and does not have the same level of magnetic charge as titanium. This makes ceramic steel a superior alternative to titanium.
There are three versions of zirconia that are made for dental implants, according to Wikipedia. These three versions include:
1) subframes for the construction of dental restorations such as crowns and bridges, which are then veneered with conventional feldspathic porcelain for aesthetic reasons.
2) Strong, durable dental prostheses constructed entirely from monolithic zirconia, with limited but constantly improving aesthetics.
3) Zirconia stabilized with yttria (yttrium oxide), known as yttria-stabilized zirconia, can be a strong base material in some full ceramic crown restorations.
That is a wide application for dental implants. But what makes that compound compatible with 3d printing?
3D Printing for Dental Implants
3d Printing, or 'Additive manufacturing', "was first developed in the 1980s. It involves taking a digital model or blueprint of the subject that is then printed in successive layers of material to create a new version of the subject". It has been an influential invention that exploded into various areas of manufacturing. This includes the fields of medicine and dentistry.
According to an article regarding prosthetics and 3D Printing, it has made prosthetics cheaper, faster, and more customizable to the patients who need them. We can say the same for 3d printed dental implants. Because they can digitally measure the specific size of a person's bite, the created implant is more precise.
How 3D Printing Works
How does it work? Basically, the specialists feed the printer a specific filament, in this case, zirconia. Attached to the printer is a computer that does the imaging and creates a blueprint for the machine to read. Inside of the machine, a nozzle hovers on top of a cooling tray and starts building the implant from bottom up. It is an additive process so it starts to squeeze out the material in layers. The tray itself cools the heated material as soon as it makes contact with the melted zirconium.
This process allows for the creation of fully formed and more intricate parts compared to the act of traditional molds and casts. Also, there is a lack of waste, or residue in the creation process meaning that it takes less material and decreases the cost of the item as a result.
But there is still the matter of oscillation. Zirconia does not fill in the holes of the bone and merge as titanium does. Is there a substitution for that? There is in the form of biomesh, a compound that has two layers. One side encourages tissue to grow over the root of the implant or in general. The other is does the exact opposite, discouraging the growth in the wrong places.
Conclusion
These advancements in technology have not only made dental implants in Plano, Texas and elsewhere in the world more advanced. It has increased in affordability through cheaper production methods, provides a safer alternative to excess metal in the mouth, and has increased the potential access for dental implants around the world. The only thing that could stop this from becoming a reality would be an external marketplace reason, such as artificial scarcity for the sake of market value. Either that or increased interference from medical insurance companies. Either way, the face of dental implants as well as dentistry as a whole is being changed by the presence of technology in a positive way.