Progress in Metal Additive Manufacturing towards a Wide Implementation in Dentistry

Abstract

In recent years, the availability of high power lasers has enabled the full melting (FM) of raw materials, as in the case of selective laser melting (SLM), and hence, has overcome the necessity of a binder. Thus, the FM allows the fabrication of parts with alloys suitable for dental applications. SLM eliminates many physical stages, required in the time-consuming investment casting process, by offering speed of the manufacturing process for bespoke metallic devices, such as denture frameworks and implant abutments. The manufacturing process is solely based on dental and medical CAD data, which are designed on virtual anatomical patterns received from high-resolution dental scanners and CT, CBCT, MRI, photogrammetry, or surface scan data.