Comparison of Teeth Displacement between Direct and Indirect CAD-CAM Manufactured Maxillary Dentures

Introduction: The fabrication of complete dentures by using computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) methods has been widely reported in both clinical and laboratory practices. Two CAD/CAM techniques, a computerized numeric control subtractive milling process and an additive manufacturing process, are available to fabricate CAD/CAM complete dentures. However, conventional pack and press technique is still commonly employed due to the lower laboratory costs as well as the adequate mechanical properties. Therefore, a combined technique that utilizes additive manufacturing and conventional pack and press technique was investigated and compared to additive manufactured maxillary complete dentures. Objectives: The purpose of this invitro study is to compare the accuracy of denture teeth displacement in dentures fabricated using the additive manufacturing method to dentures fabricated with combined conventional-3D printing method. Methodology: 20 dentures were fabricated using additive manufacturing technique and combined conventional-3D printing method. Denture teeth displacement was evaluated by comparing pre and post processing STL files using surface mapping software. Result: Data was collected, tabulated and statistically analyzed by using IBM Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software version 22.0. The combined conventional-3D printing method provided a median deviation of (-0.107) and the additive manufacturing technique provided a median deviation of (-0.228)Conclusion: The conventional-3D printing technique yielded smaller values of teeth displacement as compared to the additive manufacturing technique.