3D Scanning for 3D Printed Mouth Guard Manufacturing

    ALBUQUERQUE, NM, August 27, 2017 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Damage Control Mouthguards prides itself as being the leader in adopting the latest and most innovative technologies to create for their customers mouth guards which allow them to play harder and live better lives. Recently Damage Control has gotten into 3D manufacturing for the sole purpose of making things better and more convenient for their customers.

"Desktop 3D printing has evolved beyond hobbyist making trinkets to practical applications used in the dental industry like manufacturing dental crowns, night guards, retainers and athletic mouth guards," says CEO and Cofounder Delano Romero.

"3D intra oral scanning [an impression done on your teeth using digital imaging] has been used by the dental community for over a decade and the acceptance rate among dentist is still at a low of 10%," says Romero, "it is not enough of an adoption rate to be considered mainstream among dentist." When 3D intra oral scanning was initially introduced to dentists the scanners were usually sold in conjunction with milling machines for the purpose of making dental crowns in house, to save the dentist time and money. The minimum buy in for a set up like this was typically around one hundred thousand dollars. The machines were big, clunky and typically ended up in dental practice storage rooms. For most dentist this new technology was found to be tedious and time consuming, and didn't generate the profits they hoped. This has left a bad taste in the mouths of many dentist for this new technology. Fast forward to 2017, dentist are still slow to buy these intra oral scanners because they have had colleagues who have discouraged them, and the vast majority of these scanners are still big, clunky, and pricy.

A year ago Romero had to get an intra oral scan done by his orthodontist's dental assistant for Invisalign teeth straightening retainers. The whole scanning process took about 45 minutes. He explained the discomfort of having to keep his mouth open as wide as he could for the duration of the scan as they probed him with the over sized intra oral scanning machine. He asked the dental assistant why she couldn't have just taken a regular impression of his teeth (which would have only taken around three minutes), and then scan his teeth models afterward. She told him a digital impression could not be done in that manner. Romero, being in the dental lab tech industry, and always looking for better ways to do things, sought out a better way to do a digital impression for his customers at Damage Control Mouthguards.

3Shape Lab Scanner. A 3Shape Scanning Machine allows lab technicians to scan both impressions and teeth models and convert them to digital form. Therefore, digital intra oral scans are no longer needed for lab technicians to work on cases digitally, or for the use additive or subtractive manufacturing. As Damage Control has taken the dental visit out of the equation for someone to acquire a custom mouthguard, by developing their own self impression kit system, with the help of the 3Shape Lab Scanner, now Damage Control has taken the dental visit out of digital impressions. Damage Control has added a 3 Shape Lab Scanner as well as a 3D Printer in their repertoire of technologies. "With these new technologies at Damage Control we now can digitally scan all our customers impressions, or teeth models for easy and seamless reordering," says Romero, "our customers still do their initial impressions from the comfort of their own home. After we receive their impression back, we will scan the impression, 3D print their teeth models, and manufacture their custom mouthguard. We will have their teeth digitally stored for future orders." Now that is a better way!

We believe we are most successful when we find better ways to do things. We do this by looking at things from a different perspective, when our competition zigs we zag. When we do this we make a real impact in the lives of our customers. We are Damage Control Mouthguards

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