3D printing: both a solution and a challenge
The current dental laboratory landscape poses an interesting paradox. On the one hand, there is an increasing need for lab services due to an aging population and greater demand for oral care and advanced cosmetic procedures. Still, despite these tailwinds, small and midsize labs have never been at greater risk. The shortage in skilled labor and the capital requirements to keep up with increasing industry digitization makes it harder for labs to compete. Additionally, the trend towards full service labs makes facilities with limited service lines less attractive partners to clinicians.
Enter 3D printing, which has been a boon to the dental industry, automating time-consuming tasks once held by technicians. Single-material printers with their small footprint and lower acquisition cost have allowed many labs to move into digital dentistry. But to compete with full-service labs, small and midsize labs need to expand their service offerings to support multiple types of cases. While 3D printing has simplified this objective, new applications often require varied materials. That poses problems with singlematerial printers. Every time you have to change materials you lose productivity because the printer’s not producing and your technician is tending to the printer instead of value-added tasks.
Single-material printing also cascades into a workflow problem. Managing the print queues for different types of cases or parts for the same case that use different materials results in inefficient printer utilization. Without sufficient cases to print a full tray with a particular material, the existing cases are frequently put on hold until there are enough to maximize printer utilization. However, this can cause turnaround delays. If you print without maximizing the printer’s capacity, you’re faced with more frequent material changes and the associated costs and lost productivity.
One solution is to buy several smaller printers to minimize material swapping. But this requires significant coordination among all of your technicians to ensure the work is done in the right order and with the right materials. Some labs have added headcount just to manage this scenario, resulting in higher operating costs.
Handling and storing the resin used by some of these single-material printers is not a trivial matter either. When changing the printer material, it needs to be properly secured and stored to avoid contamination or exposure to too much light, either of which renders it unusable. Safety is a concern too, because exposure to uncured resin is a health hazard.
From a workday productivity perspective, while smaller resin printers may print quickly, total output often falls short. Most labs load up a print queue at day’s end so new models are ready the next morning. But these smaller printers are only capable of building a few models at a time. The printer may complete the job quickly but that benefit is negated when there’s no one available to load the next job. Increasing overnight production means either adding a technician during night hours to reload the printer or using a printer with more capacity.
