Personalized Smart Mouth Guard Made with Glidewell Dental’s Advanced 3D Printing Workflow

Glidewell Dental is a leader in dental 3D printing in the US. The company produces its own CT equipment, software, and more to create night guards, crowns, bridges, splints, and retainers, many using 3D printing. Previously, we’ve mentioned how the company has released surgical guides and partnered with LuxCreo. Now, in another partnership, the company will help ORBSport make the ORB Sport Smart Mouthguard.

After you buy the mouthguard, an impression kit is shipped to you. After biting on it, you send it to Glidewell, who then makes the customized mouthguard, integrates it with ORB Sport’s electronics, and sends it to you. The overall workflow is the same as what Glidewell does for the many mouthguards it makes, minus, of course, ORBSport’s magical electronics and software.

“When it comes to custom-manufactured products, additive is the clear choice. Leveraging additive manufacturing has enabled not only a better-fitting product, but also an improved customer experience thanks to the 3D-printed custom-insert that securely holds the guard in the case as it wirelessly charges. Every individual’s physiology is unique, so the products and data-driven insights should be too. Combining physiology metrics, such as heart rate, with biomechanics-related metrics, such as movement intensity and impacts, provides unparalleled visibility into performance and recovery. Additive Manufacturing continues to accelerate mass customization and the pace at which we can deliver personalized solutions,” Intrapreneur of Additive Manufacturing for Glidewell Ankush Venkatesh told 3DPrint.com.

A key success factor here was not only Glidewell´s experience with custom geometry but also a unique workflow. “A multi-modal approach allows us to form a seamless digital thread: Micro CT scanning to digitize impressions, automated software tools for design, and 3D printing to manufacture means we can achieve a 2-4 day lead-time. These are industry-leading numbers given the bespoke and complex nature of the product,” Venkatesh said.

I’ve always marveled at how many parents spend tens of thousands on children’s teeth and then send them off to play American football with an $8 mouthguard. 3D printed mouthguards have been around for a decade now, but I’ve always been surprised at how slow these things have been to take off. Mouthguards can help you stop grinding your teeth or protect them, but so far, investment in this area has been low. At the same time, there has been tons of talk about wearables and 3D printing, but few products have emerged from that hype.

Now we have something that is both a wearable and a mouthguard. The most obvious advantage is that wearing another wearable could add risk. A wearable ring, sensor on the chest, armband, or other device could cause or exacerbate an injury. A hard hit in football could become a broken finger if you’re wearing a ring. Here is a wearable that poses no additional risk. Additionally, you have to wear a mouthguard anyway, so you may as well use it to gather data.

The ORB lets you see your pulse, how much time you’ve spent in each heart rate zone, high and low heart rates, movement intensity, and the g-forces your head is exposed to on either side. Especially in high-contact sports such as American football, that last measurement could protect players from risky continued behavior and prompt them to seek treatment after hard impacts. I love the idea that younger players will learn what harder impacts do to them and avoid the riskiest behaviors for their brain health. The ORB also tracks your distance moved by counting your steps based on stride length. It can also track calories burned and trends over time. The mouthguard costs $349, which is not a lot if you can use the data to improve while protecting your teeth. I really hope this device catches on.

Dental 3D printing produces tens of millions of customized parts per year. These parts go into our mouths and are subject to strict standards. Perhaps the dental industry could be a gateway for the production of a whole generation of new personalized electronics, using its current machines, software, and procedures.