China: Porimy Creates 3D Printer That Makes Dentures in a Week

Whether you are living completely off the grid, or even under a rock, it is impossible to escape both the conversation revolving around—and the reality of—the expenses of health care today. This includes dental coverage, of course, and because of that, researchers and innovators are always seeking new routes for making dental exams and devices more affordable and easier to produce.

The creation of more traditional dentures, and methods for making them faster, better, and cheaper has been a challenge for hundreds of years—although humans have strived to replace lost teeth for thousands of years. Although he was a great general, George Washington is often remembered more for his ‘false teeth.’

Now, China’s Porimy, also working as Bo Li Mai, has created a 3D printer that makes dentures much more quickly and affordably in dental offices. With 3D scanning, a superior fit can be promised. Once the patient’s mouth and teeth have been scanned, a prosthesis is 3D printed out of ceramic slurry. This is in comparison to the conventional method of creating wax molds which are carved into shape with several iterations and refinements until they are ready to be made into dentures.

With this new technology patients may only have to wait a week to have their new dentures 3D printed and installed, according to the Kunshan Industrial Technology Research Institute, reporting on the new technology from East China’s Jiangsu Province.

“3D printing is efficient and saves on dental materials,” said Wang Yungan, chairman of Porimy.

Porimy’s 3D printer has a price tag of around ¥700,000 to ¥800,000, translating to around $110,000 US.

“The 3D printed zirconia ceramic denture researched and developed by BMI has been highly praised by the authoritative organs of oral rejuvenation in our country and has successfully passed the mechanical inspection and biological inspection of China’s Food and Drug Administration,” states Porimy on their website.

They received their Instruments registration card last October, and state that the 3D printer produces dentures at a lower cost with no internal cracks, which offer ‘broad market prospects.’

Porimy was founded in 2014 and centers their efforts around progressive 3D printing and printers, to include:

• The new high-performance ceramic 3D printer
• 3D printed zirconia ceramic dentures
• Industrial PRE300 3D printer
• Industrial PRE500 3D printer
• Industrial PRE750 3D printer
• 3D cell printer
• 3D food printer
• 3D plasticine printer
• 3D stand printer

Such research and development, culminating in very real progress, is typical of the direction China is heading with 3D printing. Their government has even gone so far as to release an action plan outlining their goals for 3D printing and additive manufacturing. They have plans to bolster research and development efforts within the country as well as to speed up the creation of new applications involving 3D technology.

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[Images: Porimy]