3D Systems Dental: 3D Printers and Solutions for Digital Dentistry

In digital dentistry, 3D scan data serves as the digital foundation for producing physical models, surgical guides, and restorations. Scans are used directly in dental CAD software to design orthodontic models, indirect bonding trays, custom impression trays, crowns, bridges, and monolithic dentures. Stored scan data also allows dental laboratories to reproduce exact treatment stages, remakes, or warranty work without archiving physical stone casts.

3D Sprint software is provided across 3D Systems printers for file preparation, print monitoring, and managing production workflows. NextDent systems integrate with standard intra-oral scanning and dental CAD design software. Specialized software plans bracket locations for indirect bonding trays and compensates for material shrinkage in denture bases, while 3D Connect provides cloud-based predictive service and remote monitoring for supported machines.

NextDent 3D printing systems produce a wide array of dental appliances. Applications include orthodontic models, thermoforming models for clear aligners, indirect bonding trays, and surgical guides for implant surgery. They also produce try-ins, removable denture bases, long-term provisionals, crowns and bridges using composite resins, and burnout patterns for casting partial denture frameworks and metal restorations.

Post-curing in a specified unit like the NextDent Cure or LC-3DPrint Box completes the validated workflow required for biocompatibility claims. Materials must be printed on an approved NextDent printer, washed, and post-cured for material-specific times using calibrated UV light. Skipping post-curing or altering cure cycles voids manufacturer biocompatibility certifications, meaning the appliance cannot be placed in a patient's mouth.

Digital dentistry solutions utilize multiple additive manufacturing technologies. The NextDent 5100 uses high-speed Figure 4 photopolymer technology, delivering print speeds of 13.3 mm per hour and layer thicknesses from 25 to 200 microns. MultiJet Printing, featured in the NextDent 300, produces multi-material jetted dentures with 32-micron layers, while stereolithography platforms support high-volume manufacturing of dental models and investment casting patterns.

NextDent patient-contact materials carry formal regulatory classifications. NextDent ORTHO IBT and Surgical Guide are Class I biocompatible materials. Restorative resins such as NextDent C&B MFH and Denture 3D+ hold Class IIa biocompatible status and are CE certified under Medical Device Directive 93/42/EEC and listed with the US FDA. Non-patient laboratory materials, like model resins and casting patterns, carry no biocompatibility classification.