Himself a dentist: an American student corrected bite with 3D printing

Dentistry in most countries is expensive. Plus, there are not many people who go to the dental office on their own if there are no special problems. These problems include improper bite - especially it does not interfere with life. True, people with the wrong bite often experience the inconvenience of a purely psychological nature - neither you smile broadly nor laugh. Irregular bite was also a student of Amos Dudley (Amos Dudley) from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Amos did not like his bite, he could not make himself smile wide. At the same time, he could not install braces either, since he was very limited in funds. But the student had access to professional 3D equipment and corresponding consumables. Plus, he was a quick-witted student, and decided that he could solve the problem himself, because at one of the dental aligners (these are not braces, but plastic mouthguards that serve the same purpose), he saw traces of 3D printing. The student decided to try to do the same for himself. Dudley read several books on prosthetics, studied the features of the materials and decided to make an aligner for himself.


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At first he made a cast of the upper jaw with teeth. After some grinding, the self-taught dentist scanned the cast using a 3D scanner, obtaining a three-dimensional model of the jaw and teeth. After that, it was necessary to develop a series of aligners, each of which would correct the problem little by little, quite a bit.



After that, it remained only to print the aligners on a high-precision 3D printer, and “to put it into operation”. He wore each of the aligners day and night for about 4 months. After this, the bite was perfect.

It was:



It became:



Anyway, the self-taught dentist does not recommend repeating his work, since it is too dangerous for health. If somewhere to miscalculate, the problems may no longer be just psychological, but the bite is spoiled forever. Anyway, Dudley saved more than one thousand dollars, plus he solved his problems on his own, acquiring a lot of useful knowledge and experience.