Development and Prospects of Zirconia 3D Printing for Artificial Prosthesis Applications

Artificial prosthetic manufacturing is moving toward patient-specific design and production, and zirconia-based three-dimensional printing is emerging as a promising approach because of its mechanical properties and biocompatibility. Yet the step from laboratory development to clinical use is still limited by the gap between laboratory-scale process optimization and clinically relevant validation of performance, reproducibility, and long-term reliability. This review provides an application-oriented overview of zirconia-based photopolymerization additive manufacturing for dental, orthopedic, and scaffold applications, discussing relevant functional requirements alongside key processing parameters, postprocessing steps, and quality-critical variables. We outline major bottlenecks, such as optical scattering and slurry rheology during fabrication, as well as defects and dimensional deviations introduced during debinding and sintering, and we discuss recent performance-oriented strategies, including triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) architectures and functionally graded additive manufacturing (FGAM) routes. Finally, we highlight the critical requirements for clinical translation, including qualification-ready process control, lot-to-lot manufacturing consistency, and robust durability validation under clinically relevant conditions. Taken together, these aspects establish a process-defect-performance relationship, where photopolymerization parameters govern defect evolution during debinding and sintering and, ultimately, determine the mechanical reliability and clinical performance of zirconia-based prostheses. Addressing these challenges will be essential for bridging the gap between laboratory-scale demonstrations and the scalable production of patient-specific zirconia prostheses.