EnvisionTEC introduced their newest 3D printer for orthodontic practices and laboratories in Booth #3121 at the American Association of Orthodontics 2015 Annual Session in San Francisco, California.  The Perfactory® Vida is a low cost, open architecture, easy to maintain and user friendly 3D printer for the digital dental laboratory.

Politecnico di Torino student, Viola Sgarminato in his thesis, used a combination of electrospinning and 3D printing with an EnvisionTEC 3D-Bioplotter to develop scaffolds that would promote healing by electrically stimulating skin cells. These wound repairing and dressing scaffolds were then seeded with cells, which were then evaluated 24 and 72 hours later. The composite wound dressings were also examined using a scanning electron microscope to verify the adhesion of the fibers to the scaffold, and good results were shown: even if subjected to mechanical stretching, the fibers remained attached to the substrate.

35 Patients participated in a jont study for Dentures and received 3D Printed Dentures made from a composite material, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)–nanoTiO2. Researchers from Turkey and Romania then studied the quality and outcomes of the dentures using questionnaires for the participants that involved 49 questions in total regarding the usability and efficiency of these compared to usual dentures. The dentures were created on an EnvisionTEC Perfactory 3D printer, featuring a layer thickness from 25μm to 150μm. Patients noted ‘significant improvement’ related to their oral health as the dentures provided good retention and stability.