The use of 3D additive manufacturing technology in autogenous dental transplantation

Medical 3D Printing Using Material Jetting: Technology Overview, Medical Applications, and Challenges

Material Jetting (MJT) 3D printing (3DP) is a specific technology that deposits photocurable droplets of material and colored inks to fabricate objects layer-by-layer. The high resolution and full color capability render MJT 3DP an ideal technology for 3DP in medicine as evidenced by the 3DP literature. The technology has been adopted globally across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia. While MJT 3D printers can be expensive, their ability to fabricate highly accurate and multi-color parts provides a lucrative opportunity in the creation of advanced prototypes and medical models. The literature on MJT 3DP has expanded greatly as of late, in part aided by the lowering costs of the technology, and this report is the first review to document the applications of MJT in medicine. Additionally, this report portrays the technological information behind MJT 3DP, cases involving fabricated MJT 3DP models from the University of Cincinnati 3DP lab, as well as the challenges of MJT in a clinical setting, including cost, expertise in managing the machines, and scalability issues. It is expected that MJT 3DP, as imaging and segmentation technologies undergo future improvement, will be best poised with representing the voxel-level-variations captured by radiologic-image-sets due to its capacity for voxel-level-control.

Three-Dimensionally-Printed Polymer and Composite Materials for Dental Applications with Focus on Orthodontics

Three-dimensional printing has transformed dentistry by enabling the production of customized dental restorations, aligners, surgical guides, and implants. A variety of polymers and composites are used, each with distinct properties. This review explores materials used in 3D printing for dental applications, focusing on trends identified through a literature search in PubMed, Scopus, and the Web of Science. The most studied areas include 3D-printed crowns, bridges, removable prostheses, surgical guides, and aligners. The development of new materials is still ongoing and also holds great promise in terms of environmentally friendly technologies. Modern manufacturing technologies have a promising future in all areas of dentistry: prosthetics, periodontology, dental and oral surgery, implantology, orthodontics, and regenerative dentistry. However, further studies are needed to safely introduce the latest materials, such as nanodiamond-reinforced PMMA, PLA reinforced with nanohydroxyapatite or magnesium, PLGA composites with tricalcium phosphate and magnesium, and PEEK reinforced with hydroxyapatite or titanium into clinical practice.

Assessment of an original dental autotransplantation technique: A retrospective study and proposal of a method

Background

Successful tooth autotransplantation (TAT) requires preservation of the periodontal ligament (PDL) on donor teeth and good vascularization of the recipient site to ensure maintenance of alveolar bone volume through physiological stimulation of PDL. This retrospective study aims to evaluate the survival and success rate of a two-step procedure that uses dual periodontal stimulation and a 3D replica of the transplanted tooth to promote ligament repair and prevent ankylosis and root resorption.

Material and Methods

All consecutive patients followed at the dental center of Rennes and having undergone a TAT in two surgical stages with double periodontal stimulation and the use of a 3D replica of the transplanted tooth between 2017 and 2022 were invited for follow-up clinical and radiographic examination. First, survival rates were calculated on the basis of a telephone survey. Then, a clinical and radiological follow-up examination was used to calculate the success rate.

Results

Of these 22 transplants, 21 were still functioning, and 1 had been extracted, giving a 95,5% probability of survival after a median follow-up of 23 month. Of the 21 teeth eligible for success analysis, clinical and radiological follow-up showed a success rate of 90,5% with normal PDL and no ankylosis.

Conclusions

The teeth auto-transplanted by this procedure gave a very satisfactory survival and success rate in the medium term. This study suggests that this standardized autotransplantation procedure potentiates PDL healing and may be a viable and predictable treatment in current clinical practice, especially when orthodontic treatment is required. Key words:Tooth autotransplantation, 3D printing, periodontal regeneration, bone regeneration.

The state of additive manufacturing in dental research - A systematic scoping review of 2012-2022

Background/purpose

Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, has the potential to transform the industry. While there have been advancements in using AM for dental restorations, there is still a need for further research to develop functional biomedical and dental materials. It's crucial to understand the current status of AM technology and research trends to advance dental research in this field. The aim of this study is to reveal the current status of international scientific publications in the field of dental research related to AM technologies.

Materials and methods

In this study, a systematic scoping review was conducted using appropriate keywords within the scope of international scientific publishing databases (PubMed and Web of Science). The review included related clinical and laboratory research, including both human and animal studies, case reports, review articles, and questionnaire studies. A total of 187 research studies were evaluated for quantitative synthesis in this review.

Results

The findings highlighted a rising trend in research numbers over the years (From 2012 to 2022). The most publications were produced in 2020 and 2021, with annual percentage increases of 25.7% and 26.2%, respectively. The majority of AM-related publications in dentistry research originate from Korea. The pioneer dental sub-fields with the ost publications in its category are prosthodontics and implantology, respectively.

Conclusion

The final review result clearly stated an expectation for the future that the research in dentistry would concentrate on AM technologies in order to increase the new product and process development in dental materials, tools, implants and new generation modelling strategy related to AM. The results of this work can be used as indicators of trends related to AM research in dentistry and/or as prospects for future publication expectations in this field.

Autotransplantation with tooth replica: Technical note

INTRODUCTION

Dental autotransplantation is a surgical procedure that involves the implantation of a tooth with incomplete root development to replace an injured or missing tooth. An initial surgery was performed to attempt orthodontic traction without success after 6 months.

TECHNIQUE

Preoperative assessment included mandibular cone beam computed tomography to visualise two canines. The double autotransplantation technique was performed under general anaesthesia using three-dimensional resin-printed dental replicas. The extra-alveolar time for each tooth was reportedly <1 min, and pulp sensibility was observed 3 months later.

CONCLUSION

In the digital era, dental autotransplantation has become an essential part of orthodontic-surgical treatment in children and adolescents with dental agenesis or non-preservable teeth. The use of three-dimensional dental replicas printed from radiological data offers a reliable, reproducible, and valid therapeutic solution with an advantageous benefit/risk balance.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging as a tool for quality control in extrusion-based bioprinting

Bioprinting is gaining importance for the manufacturing of tailor-made hydrogel scaffolds in tissue engineering, pharmaceutical research and cell therapy. However, structure fidelity and geometric deviations of printed objects heavily influence mass transport and process reproducibility. Fast, three-dimensional and nondestructive quality control methods will be decisive for the approval in larger studies or industry. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) meets these requirements for characterizing heterogeneous soft materials with different properties. Complementary to the idea of decentralized 3D printing, magnetic resonance tomography is common in medicine, and image data processing tools can be transferred system-independently. In this study, we evaluated a MRI measurement and image analysis protocol to jointly assess the reproducibility of three different hydrogels and a reference material. Critical parameters for object quality, namely porosity, hole areas and deviations along the height of the scaffolds are discussed. Geometric deviations could be correlated to specific process parameters, anomalies of the ink or changes of ambient conditions. This strategy allows the systematic investigation of complex 3D objects as well as an implementation as a process control tool. Combined with the monitoring of metadata this approach might pave the way for future industrial applications of 3D printing in the field of biopharmaceutics. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Instant in-situ Tissue Repair by Biodegradable PLA/Gelatin Nanofibrous Membrane Using a 3D Printed Handheld Electrospinning Device

Background: This study aims to design a 3D printed handheld electrospinning device and evaluate its effect on the rapid repair of mouse skin wounds.

Methods: The device was developed by Solidworks and printed by Object 350 photosensitive resin printer. The polylactic acid (PLA)/gelatin blend was used as the raw material to fabricate in-situ degradable nanofiber scaffolds. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and water vapor permeability test were used to evaluate the material properties of the scaffolds; cytotoxicity test was performed to evaluate material/residual solvent toxicity, and in situ tissue repair experiments in Balb/c mouse were performed.

Results: The 3D printed handheld electrospinning device successfully fabricates PLA/gelatin nanofibrous membrane with uniformly layered nanofibers and good biocompatibility. Animal experiments showed that the mice in the experimental group had complete skin repair.

Conclusions: The 3D printed handheld device can achieve in situ repair of full-thickness defects in mouse skin.