Formlabs Expands Material Portfolio for Dental, Medical Applications

Formlabs’ Dental LT Comfort Resin and Biomed Durable Resin are two new materials for dental and medical applications that are available for the Form 3B, Form 3B+ and Form 3BL printers. This expands the company’s library of more than 40 3D printing materials to spark innovation and advance personalized patient care for point-of-care facilities and medical device makers as well as dental and orthodontic practices and labs.

“At Formlabs, we are continuously empowering our customers to push the boundaries in 3D printing,” says Guillaume Bailliard, Formlabs president. “With the release of these two new materials, we’re proud to expand our material library, and enable dental and health care professionals and engineers to push the boundaries of device development.”

The Dental LT Comfort Resin is a durable and flexible material for long-term occlusal splints, nightguards and bleaching trays. This material was designed to provide patient comfort, fit and durability against wear in order to make a clinical impact. For example, it is said to improve patient compliance to treatment plans and require fewer patient follow-up visits. This latest addition to Formlabs Dental’s dental platform is said to continue the company’s mission to provide superior, affordable and easy-to-use materials to practices and labs.

Dental and orthodontic labs, and dental practices can now directly print flexible splints that are long-term biocompatible, comfortable for the patient and require minimal polish to reach high optical transparency for long-term use. With Dental LT Comfort Resin, dental practices can easily, efficiently and economically scan patients and create a comfortable, superior surface finish splint within hours to lower costs and increase ROI, according to the company.

“When I had the opportunity to beta test the Dental LT Comfort from Formlabs Dental, I was amazed,” says Stephan Kreimer, director of Kreimer Dentallabor. “The material's prepolished appearance and exceptional translucency right after printing significantly reduced postprocessing time. Furthermore, I was impressed by its fracture resistance and flexibility, which ensure optimal comfort, making it the perfect choice for dental splints.”

Formlabs biocompatible resins, including BioMed Clear Resin, BioMed White Resin and more, have been widely used in health care applications from surgical guides to anatomical models. To meet demand for mass personalization and patient-specific devices, procedure-specific instruments and medical devices, Formlabs’ BioMed Durable Resin is a new formulation developed specifically to address the need for a biocompatible material that can withstand impact, rough handling and pressure. 

Patient-specific instruments (PSI) designed for unique patient anatomy have been shown to improve patient outcomes by 16% when using guides, reducing complications by almost 30%. In addition, personalized devices increase precision which lowers operating times and improves patient outcomes. It is said BioMed Durable Resin will expand 3D printing in health care with impact-, shatter- and abrasion-resistant properties, and excellent clarity and surface finish, making it well suited for biocompatible and durable PSIs and customizable surgical instruments — such as medical devices that can be hit with a surgical mallet or shaken with a cutting saw. 

TechFit Digital Surgery is a PSI provider that works with physicians to design and 3D printed surgical instrumentation. It’s CEO and co-founder, Mauricio Toro, uses BioMed Durable Resin to produce patient-specific instrumentation that is impact-, shatter-, and abrasion-resistant. “We see Biomed Durable Resin as an ideal platform for the printing of single-use, patient-specific surgical instrumentation,” Toro says. “The increased mechanical properties provide more design flexibility and increased indications while maintaining the biological properties required for reliably producing the best surgical results.”

BioMed Durable Resin is a USP Class VI material, made in an FDA-registered, ISO 13485 facility and can be used in applications for long-term skin, and short-term tissue, bone and dentin contact.

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• Learn more about how Formlabs Dental’s solutions for making digital dentistry easier. The dental offerings enable dental labs and practices to reduce costs and increase efficiency, while delivering industry-leading print quality.
   
• Read about Formlabs Dental’s partnership with Digital Smile Design. The digital dental workflows can transform dental labs by enabling technicians to digitally design and fabricate models and appliances from a digital impression to create dental products at a fraction of the cost and time, while also improving patient outcomes.