Why does a doctor use this 3D printer to make his surgical guide.
Like any dentist, Dr. Ken Kim in Plainview, NY hopes to get the best from his surgery. Although some doctors surgically implant their implants, Dr. Kim prefers surgical guidance to obtain reliable, accurate results. He said that using his Formlabs Form 2 3D printer can achieve the best quality of surgical guidance.
Before his Form 2 printer, he used a milling machine to create his guide. The two manufacturing methods are completely different.
"Grinding is a bit different from 3D printing," he observed. "With milling, you can cut something from a piece of material. But with 3D printing, you can create everything that can be omnipotent."
The best dental equipment for this job
The reason for the technical transformation is because when the milling machine is finished working, it is not suitable to complete the task, Kim explained.
“It's a bit of a hassle. It caused a loss to my milling machine,” he said. "This is indeed designed to create a crown. I found a better way to print my surgical guide, using a Form 2 printer.
"The reason I entered this whole 3D business is because I don't like the direction of my implants," he continued. "I'm pretty sure that many dentists there may have similar frustrations because you try to provide a 3D object in the patient's chin, and you want to do a good job every time. It's difficult because we're just people. You can't Every time a perfect circle is drawn. "
His first effort to find the perfect system made him a milling machine.
Dr. Kim said: "Through my pursuit, I actually found the perfect way to perform milling every time I performed surgery." This is what I introduced first. This is fine, but the only problem is that it caused damage to my very expensive milling unit, like $70,000-8,000. After that, it used to leave a lot of rubbish in my grinding unit. “
Milling, while completing work, becomes expensive and creates less than perfect results.
Dr. Kim explained: "Surgical guidelines for milling costs $ 60 or $ 70." Fit is not so good, it is a bit rocky in the mouth. The ultimate reason for changing to a 3D printer is that milling only allows me to complete one implant at a time. If I wanted to make two implants in a row, I would have to mill two different surgical guides, and that was not what I really wanted. I was dealing with this period of time and then finally I found out that Form 2. Like Form 2, I can do any number of surgical guides at a very low cost, somewhere between $20 and $25. Therefore, it is not easy for you to do this. “
Table 2 Although doctors can implant implants without surgical guidance, Dr. Kim believes they ensure consistent reliability and success.
"I really think this is the standard of care," he explained. "I told the doctor in the lecture, 'This is the standard of care, you don't know yet. From the patient's point of view: you need an implant, you have a doctor A, who can do it perfect, and doctor B has 20 Years of experience, but there is no guarantee that it will move straight forward. What is the right approach? Now that we have this technology, I think it is wrong to put it in the air. "
this process
The use of surgical guides greatly assists in optimal placement of dental implants. When placed in the patient's mouth, the guide allows the doctor to find the ideal position, angle, and depth to achieve a successful outcome.
Dr. Kim introduced the method of designing implants and surgical guides.
"The first thing I did was let you pass a CBCT scanner," he explained. “Compared to conventional X-rays, this is a 3D image of the sacrum. We need to do this because in order to design a treatment for an implant, we need a three-dimensional sacrum and you will actually implant the implant.
"Then I scanned your toothless area with an all-around scanner," continued Dr. King. "Whereever you lose a tooth, I scan the area, as well as some other neighboring teeth, and maybe two or three other teeth. I used a digital scanner because of the separate cone beam. Scanning is not accurate enough for surgical guidelines. "
From there, he used specialized software to merge two scans.
"Then we covered the CT scan and the software I used allowed me to do so," he continued. "They have implant treatment planning software that lets you put them in the same place in 3D space. Then, using the software, I can actually design a surgical guide and then export the file from the software to Form 2. Then I can print it. "
Being able to do all this work in his office can shorten the turnaround time.
"All of this happened within the first hour of patient entry," Dr. King said. "When you leave, I'm pressing "print" on my computer."
There are many 3D printers in the market, but the affordability of Form 2 is one of Dr. Kim's greatest attractions.
"I've been looking for answers to do better things because I'm not satisfied with what happened in the office," he said. "It worked, but it wasn't satisfactory. I went to a 3D digital implant surgery guide. That's where I introduced the Form 2 printer.
"Form 2 printers are not that expensive, first, because it is not actually a 'dental' printer," he continued. "If they put 'teeth' next to 'Form 2', it will be another zero instead of $3,500 and it will be $35,000. It's easy to enter; no risk involved. In fact, you can print anything What you want, like multiple implants, you can do with Form 2.
The price of the machine is not the only factor for Dr. Kim. The cost of printing equipment is also a consideration.
"The cost is like 20-25 dollars per surgical guide," he said. "This is not the cost of achieving it. The cost of materials for each surgical guide is like $1 or $2, but when considering CAD software for model making, scanning fitness, etc., its cost will reach 20-25 Dollars.
"But this is not as cheap as what you get," Dr. Jin continued. "The surgical guide I got from Table 2 is actually more accurate than the one I was milling on the expensive milling unit. In any case, it will win every category."
Formlabs uses its proprietary resin specifically for surgical guidelines.
"There is a special resin specifically designed for dental surgery guides," said Dr. Kim. "Form 2 has dental SG resin designed and approved specifically for surgical guidance materials."
Practitioners have found use for 3D printing in many different dental supplies fields. Some people use them for applications such as clear aligners, occlusal guards, and cleats. At this point, Dr. Kim only uses it to print surgical guidelines. However, if the correct application appears, he will consider it.
"Of course, in the future, if I think it is worth my time, I will use the printer," he said. “Only printing surgical guidelines saved me a lot of money. Before I grind my surgical catheter, I used to send it to another lab. In the past, I spent 400 dollars to buy an implant. Now I have it It fell to about $25. At the end of this month, I paid $4,000 or $5,000 for a surgical guide. Not that cost is the number one priority, but if you don't need it, why waste all this money? You don't have to sacrifice the quality of patient care. Why waste all this money?"
Printing surgical guides in the hospital is also much faster than Dr. Kim's previous method.
"It used to take two to three weeks because I sent my case to Germany," he explained. "But now, I really got it on the same day."
Surgical guidelines used to take a long time to produce, and they are expensive. But now, Dr. King said that he did not see why surgical guidelines are not a common part of the surgery. He believes that Table 2 is an effective and reliable method to achieve this goal.
Dr. Kim said: “I strongly recommend Form 2 is suitable for 3D printing of implant implant surgery guidelines.” “I think Form 2 is a huge asset for any dental clinic. I think 3D printing will become a care. standard."
