Open-Source Material That Prints Precisely Right Away
Inside Dental Technology delivers updates on digital workflows, materials, lab techniques, and innovation in dental technology through expert articles and videos.
October 1, 2019
Volume 10, Issue 10, October 2019
Page(s): p. 20
Open CAD/CAM systems offer dental professionals more freedom than closed systems, but calibration sometimes is a concern when the hardware and the materials are produced by different manufacturers. Knowing this, Jessica Birrell, CDT, was slightly skeptical when testing open-system printing of surgical guides in her laboratory, Capture Dental Arts, in West Jordan, Utah.
"Implant planning is a key component in really controlling the esthetics and other elements of complex cases," Birrell says.
Birrell previously utilized an outsource partner for printing surgical guides. However, she wanted to explore bringing the process in-house, so she took full advantage of the opportunity to test Keystone Industries' KeyPrint KeyGuide material.
"I love research," Birrell says, "so I wanted to test this material not only on our printing system, but also on others."
She created one design file in Blue Sky Bio software and had it printed on several printers with different materials-including her current outsource partner using their preferred materials, and her own SprintRay MoonRay printer using KeyGuide. She found that KeyGuide fit "a lot better" than the outsourcing partner.
That is not always the case when printing in-house. Calibration can be a difficult process. Birrell compares it to cooking without using a recipe.
"You can use a recipe, or you can just buy all the ingredients," she says. "If you buy all the ingredients without a recipe, you have some experimenting to do to figure out how it works. That is how open systems are."
Accordingly, Birrell was cautious in her optimism about printing in-house with KeyGuide.
"Printing material in an open system can be a challenge," she says. "When we tested this material in the beginning, I was surprised. It print really well, and the fit was very precise. It was really easy to use."
That precision and ease of use are a result of Keystone having worked closely with SprintRay and several other manufacturers to validate its materials for each printer.
"Using KeyGuide in our open system was really easy," Birrell says. "We did not need to calibrate anything. We just put the material in and printed, and it came out and fit the model perfectly."
The benefits of the KeyGuide material include strength without brittleness; autoclavability; color stability; and ease of polishing. Having confirmed those benefits firsthand, Birrell now plans to print all of her surgical guides in-house using KeyGuide.
"We are definitely impressed with it. We will no longer be outsourcing our surgical guides," she says. "This was a really easy material to use, and I definitely think any small laboratory would benefit from this investment. It works with other open systems; just check with Keystone Industries to see if they have worked with those printers to calibrate the settings."
Ideal for fabricating transparent surgical guides, which enable the placement of implants at a precise angle and depth.
Autoclavable, color stable, and easy to polish.
Biocompatible and validated for use on a wide variety of printers.
Strong without brittleness-105-MPa flexural strength and 2400-MPa flexural modulus.
See the Interview
View the full interview of Jessica Birrell, CDT, by IDT's
Editor-in-Chief Peter Pizzi, MDT, CDT, at insidedentaltech.com/idt1111.
For more information, contact:
Keystone Industries
keystoneindustries.com
800-333-3131
