3D Printing Supports Personalized Oral Health3D Printing Supports Personalized Oral Health

Additive manufacturing is “really good at producing complex parts directly from digital data,” Patrick Dunne tells Design News. As vice president, application innovation group and technical fellow for 3D Systems, Dunne has been working with additive manufacturing technologies for more than 20 years.

The fully personalized 3D-printed mouthpieces for the brand-new Proclaim Custom-Jet Oral Health System are the latest example of additive manufacturing’s ability to produce complex parts. Each mouthpiece features up to 60 jets that pulse 22 ounces of water in just 7 seconds to provide a “precision deep clean every time,” according to the company. Multiple mouthpieces with color-coded rings for different household members can be hygienically used with the same water supply base, called a Hydro Station. 

Mike Hanuschik, the original founder of Proclaim, had envisioned a product for promoting oral health, and “it always centered around a personalized mouthpiece knowing that advancements in 3D printing could make this a reality,” David Hood, director of marketing, Proclaim Health, tells Design News. 

“Mike was trying to help his grandmother with her overall health issues,” Hood continues. “After doing a lot of research, Mike began to understand the impact that oral health has on systemic health. He began looking at products to help improve oral health but quickly realized the lack of innovation in at-home oral care. With a background in product innovation at Intuitive Surgical, he began coming up with how to automate oral health and ultimately Proclaim was born.”

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The process for personalizing each mouthpiece begins “with a 3D intraoral scan, which captures the unique dentition of each person,” Hood explains. “This scan is uploaded into our proprietary software where we place the custom jets to effectively target each of the interproximal areas for that specific user.”

That bite scan is “essentially mesh data that then goes through data conditioning to add in all the engineered components—all the fluid delivery capillaries and mechanical components that allow for rapid connection to the system,” Dunne adds. “Math is used to fine-tune the design in order to balance the velocity of the fluid with the volume, duration, and direction to achieve the targeted clinical outcomes.”

After the data is set, it is transmitted to 3D print the mouthpiece. Stereolithography was chosen as the 3D printing method, which Dunne calls a “very gentle non-contact and no-heat process that allows us to express exquisite structures, like the 1-milliliter capillaries needed for this project.” 

Related:3D Printing Makes In-House Pattern Making Possible

There are also “no constraints with stereolithography, and Proclaim has taken advantage of that,” he adds. The company “bought a ProJet 7000 HD to use in-house early on during design and was able to rapidly iterate, trying more capillaries, sizes, and fits. It has allowed them to test and accelerate the designs into a cool device. It’s great for prototyping, as produced parts are a true representation of CAD. All the work done in optimizing the design has allowed them to scale up for production through a contract manufacturer.” In other words, the Proclaim Health team was able to “stop prototyping and start producing,” he says.

For production, 3D Systems introduced the team to a selection of its customers that had profiles that matched their manufacturing needs, Dunne adds. “There is a massive installed base of stereolithography users. The method is considered the workhorse of the industry.” 

The chosen partner was In’Tech Industries, which uses one of 3D Systems’s large-format SLA industrial-grade systems.

There were several requirements for the final 3D-printed mouthpiece: biocompatible materials for use with intraoral cavity; optical clarity, so users could see that the device is clean; and surface quality. 

Accura ClearVue, a transparent, polycarbonate-like material capable of meeting USP Class VI, was selected for the mouthpiece. “It is one of the many materials we offer for biocompatibility,” says Dunne. The material can be printed in the stereolithography process, which “generates smooth contours and provides one of the finest finishes.”

In terms of post-processing, stereolithography requires “just a little touch up, such as washing and light sanding,” Dunne explains. “The support structure is ultra fine, like toothbrush bristles, and very few of them. You will see a few pinpoints, but they require minimal labor to remove them. And none of the other surfaces need finishing.”

Dunne says that while the mouthpiece is “not impossible to exist without 3D printing, 3D printing made it an order of magnitude easier to produce,” he says. “It could be produced with CNC and assembly but 3D printing makes it dramatically easier, faster, and more economical.”

PROCLAIM HEALTH

The end result is an FDA-cleared, clinically proven system for reducing gum bleeding by up to 82% and inflammation by up to 41% in just 30 days, according to Proclaim. The system is an investment for users, but Hood points out that “the cost of prevention can be much less than the cost of fixing a bigger problem. Using Proclaim and brushing can help protect against gingivitis, which left untreated can progress into advanced periodontal disease. Periodontal disease has been linked to systemic health issues, highlighting the impact oral health can have on your overall health. Periodontal disease can also lead to costly dental procedures that can potentially occur without a proper oral hygiene routine. For example, scaling and root planing (SRP), typically performed to help treat periodontal disease, can cost thousands of dollars and can take multiple visits to a dental practice to have completed.”