Ian Buckle, practice principal of Buckle Advanced Dental Care, discusses the many benefits of 3D printing in dentistry and in particular, the SprintRay Pro S
As I focus on complete dentistry, I look at both functional and aesthetic aspects to keep my patients healthy and looking great. I’ve also been involved in teaching for a long time, including running courses from my clinic at Buckle Advanced Dental Care.
I’ve been acquainted with digital dentistry my entire career, starting with the original CEREC scanner as a student in the 1980s. Ultimately, I enjoy technology, we’re a completely digital practice and the courses we teach are all digitally based.
A smart approach
Digital dentistry makes our work more predictable, fun, efficient, and productive. This is important for complete dentistry where we need to do great work quickly. Digital dental solutions like 3D printers enable this, and that is why I was intrigued to try the SprintRay Pro S. We already had a 3D printer in the practice, and I’ve used a variety of them over the years, so I know what a difference they can make.
For years, we’ve engaged with printed models, printed splints, and printed surgical guides. Now we’re printing crowns and temporary crowns as well. It aids what we do, particularly when working with labs around the world because we can communicate digitally. A 3D printer like the SprintRay Pro S allows us to look at the work produced by a lab via an STL file, rather than waiting for a mock-up to arrive in the post. This has changed the whole game.
A simplified workflow
I was first introduced to the SprintRay Pro S during a course. Most people don’t realise that with most 3D printers you need a separate system to wash and cure the printed objects after production. The SprintRay Pro S is an integrated system, making a smooth workflow from the printer to the SprintRay Pro Wash/Dry to the SprintRay ProCure. It’s all well-coordinated and supported with results that take you right to the finish, and it’s at a good price, too. For these reasons, we use it all day every day in our practice and on our courses.
Efficient and cost-effective
Efficiency is tremendous with the SprintRay Pro S, as it enables us to print multiple models for bleaching trays, wax-ups, aligners, splints, and surgical guides; we also produce temporary and final crowns, which is phenomenal. You can design and print in-clinic or have them designed at a lab and transferred digitally to then print yourself.
3D printing offers cost-effective opportunities for mass production. When you can print around 84 crowns an hour, even on a small platform like ours, it introduces impressive cost-efficiencies. We’ve been printing and milling for years, but the way 3D printers build up in layers allows us to print multiple crowns very quickly, even within half an hour.
Splints are another example; they can be a real challenge, because they require a good foundation. I can honestly say that after three decades of working with digital technology, the Sprintray Pro S offers the best method we’ve ever had of producing these, with outstanding accuracy. It’s amazing to compare it to the old-fashioned, messy way of producing splints with acrylic.
Digital connectivity enables us to send accurate information off to the lab straight away with clear instructions. Once the lab shares their work, we can look at it together in a virtual meeting to make sure it’s in good order. Once approved, we print it locally, reducing the entire process to within a day, whereas before it could take two weeks.
Accurate and patient-centred
The SprintRay Pro S has all the accuracy we need in clinic. We have the capability to do cases like full mouth rehabilitations, which require a high level of accuracy whilst also having the option to cut the accuracy back to save time and increase cost-effectiveness when pinpoint accuracy is not required.
It’s important to note that accuracy is also optimised in a full digital workflow. The more often you introduce analogue processes, the higher the risk of inaccuracies. This is one of the reasons why we’re a completely digital practice.
Everything we do should be patient-centred, and 3D printing allows us to provide a better service to our patients through our increased efficiency and accuracy. Digital processes provide a better experience, from not having to endure conventional impressions to reduced treatment times.
We deal with a lot of wear cases. Now we can simply print beautifully fitting onlays in resin and glue them in place.
Unrivalled support
As it’s a digital system, an engineer can log in remotely to fix the SprintRay Pro S if needed, reducing the risk of downtime. The SprintRay team have been a huge support throughout, as have the team at Henry Schein. I always feel well looked after, and any problems are resolved quickly.
This, along with its price point and the integration of the system are the key selling points of SprintRay Pro S for me.
The future of 3D printing
Look at the world, never mind dentistry, and we see 3D printing everywhere. The technology is advancing quickly, and the materials are getting better all the time. It won’t be long before we can print almost anything, and then it’s really going take over and become part of our daily routine.
If you’re going to provide the best care for your patients, it’s essential to look forward because technology is always moving on; this is vital in health care professions. By staying curious and getting involved, we stimulate the everyday and make dentistry better by offering an enhanced service. 3D printing isn’t the future; it’s now.