Here at Myers Street Clinic, my team and I have been incorporating 3D printing into our work for the past 4 years – making your dentistry experience less painful and more efficient!

If you have no idea what 3D printing is and it sounds like a strange dystopian technology – let me explain. One of the main ways I use printing is to make non-intrusive, accurate moulds. This process is much quicker than using the uncomfortable, traditional plaster moulds that patients tend not to like.

By using the 3D technique, we can digitally scan and print a mould of people’s mouths and have it within seconds. This makes our process quicker, and generally makes our patients more relaxed. We also regularly print temporary crowns and designs of people’s teeth, so we can make the aligners for Invisalign in a more smooth, efficient process.

By doing the above, we can offer the right product, at the right price, in a speedy manner. The accuracy of digital printing allows us to pinpoint really specific things within the mouth and limit the likelihood of human error.

Test drive your smile… 

3D printing also allows our patients to have direct input into how their smile will look! At our clinic at Geelong, we let patients test drive their smile by showing them printed moulds of their how their teeth will look post-braces or surgery. We also digitally design and print a shell that goes over the teeth, which patients can look at and make changes to before we pick up a tool.

This technology can also be extended to mouth implants! We take a 3D X-ray and measurement of the jaw and determine exactly where to place the implant based off the main nervous area. 

We then print an acrylic guide that shows where the implant needs to go, so we can replicate this in surgery. This typically results in a quicker recovery time and less discomfort/swelling for our patients.

The best part  – at our Myers Street Dental Clinic there are no additional costs to patients when 3D printing is used in their appointment.

We’ve now used this method with over 500 patients, and the benefits are immeasurable. This is just one of the many innovative techniques we use to make going to the dentist a more pleasant experience. 

To find out more about our practice, click here.

To read more into 3D printing, click here

By Dr Gautam Herle