Dentistry Department begins using 3D printer to create plastic impressions of patients’ mouths

Digital technology is part of JGH’s newly launched 3D Dental Laboratory

The process of creating a model of a patient’s mouth—to be used in crafting dentures, crowns, dental implants and similar prostheses—has become faster and more efficient with the acquisition of a 3D printer by the JGH Department of Dentistry.

In inaugurating its 3D Dental Laboratory on December 16, the department joined the growing number of facilities that are using digital technology for this purpose.

Rena Gornitsky (left) cuts a red ribbon to officially launch the 3D Dental Laboratory, for which she provided funding on her own behalf and that of her late husband, Dr. Mervyn Gornitsky. Joining her is Dr. Mel Schwartz, Chief of Dentistry, and Dr. Melanie Menassa, Director of Prosthodontics. (Click to enlarge.)

However, Dr. Mel Schwartz, Chief of Dentistry, notes that since it is uncommon for Canadian hospitals to have a department of dentistry, the JGH is now one of the few sites where a 3D printer is being used in a hospital setting.

The new lab was developed with funding from Rena Gornitsky on her own behalf and that of her late husband, Dr. Mervyn Gornitsky, who was Chief of Dentistry from 1971 to 1998. After stepping down as Chief, Dr. Gornitsky continued to practice and, in later years, taught at the JGH until his death in 2022. Support for the lab was also provided by The JGH Auxiliary.

Traditionally, a dental impression is created by first coating the upper or lower set of teeth with putty that sets and hardens into a solid but rubbery mass. This pliable material is then removed from the mouth as a single piece and is sent to a laboratory for processing.

At this external lab, a type of highly durable plaster, known as stone, is poured into the hardened impression. When the impression is later peeled away, the resulting stone model is a replica of the mouth from which it was molded.

With the new technology, a wireless hand-held intra-oral scanner—somewhat like a short, stubby wand—captures an image of the patient’s mouth and relays this data to a computer, where the image is displayed on the screen.

Dr. Melanie Menassa handles a wireless intra-oral scanner, which can capture a digital image of a patient’s mouth. The data from this device is fed into a 3D printer, which produces a plastic model of the patient’s teeth.

If the image is deemed usable, the data is transferred to the 3D printer, where liquid resin is shaped and hardened into a real-world plastic duplicate of the digital image.

Not only can the model be created more quickly and easily with digital tools, the patient is spared the discomfort of having the mouth filled with the material out of which the old-fashioned impression is formed, Dr. Schwartz says.

Unlike the stone model, the printed version is hollow, so it’s more economical to produce and much more convenient to store as an actual object or as a digital file, says Dr. Melanie Menassa, Director of Prosthodontics and Associate Director of the Department of Dentistry.

She adds that in the recent past, patients’ mouths were sometimes scanned digitally at the JGH, but the image had to be sent to an outside lab for processing. With the launch of the 3D Dental Laboratory, everything can finally be done in-house.

Dr. Menassa explains that working with digital files makes it possible to obtain a final image of very high quality, since the computer alerts the dental professional if anything in the patient’s mouth has been poorly scanned or missed.

In addition, she says, since the Department of Dentistry has equipment that produces 3D x-ray images, these can be paired with images from the 3D printer to create highly detailed guides for dental surgery.

Since the new lab will be extensively used for training purposes, Dr. Schwartz sees it as a tribute to Dr. Gornitsky, who was strongly dedicated to the education of new generations of dentists.

“Providing patients with treatment and services of superior quality goes hand in hand with being at the cutting edge of training and education,” Dr. Schwartz says. “This is the legacy of Dr. Gornitsky that endures in our department, and our patients will benefit from it for many years to come.”