DentWise announces a breakthrough method for producing implant-supported restorations. Using patented additive manufacturing technology, DentWise designs and produces the most sophisticated implant bridges, including highly complex surface retentions and individual emergence profiles.
After developing the method in collaboration with the Leuven University and passing clinical trials successfully, DentWise implant structures are now available to dental technicians. They particularly appreciate the design freedom that’s associated with DentWise, and value the fact that they have access to suprastructures that cannot be produced any other way. Visit DentWise at IDS 2011 in Cologne, Germany in hall 04.1 at stand D013.
Building better implant suprastructures
Today, additive manufacturing technologies such as laser sintering are widely used for manufacturing cemented copings and bridges. But since 2008, Belgian high-tech company LayerWise has been stretching the limits of metal additive manufacturing. DentWise, the company’s dental division, is the only party worldwide that fully exploits the benefits of additive manufacturing technology to produce high-end implant suprastructures.
DentWise’s patented manufacturing technology allows for designing the most complex implant bridges. A perfect passive fit is guaranteed, while achieving accuracies better than 20µm at the implant interfaces. By applying its state-of-the art selective laser melting technology, DentWise is able to integrate the most complex surface retentions on the implant bridges. As the technology builds up material in ultra-thin layers, it can realise an individual emergence profile on each of the implant connections, perfectly following the gingival profile. DentWise suprastructures are manufactured using ultra strong titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V, grade V), which outperforms the commonly used titanium grade II in terms of mechanical properties.
Endless possibilities offered as a full service
CEO Peter Mercelis says: “Although current CAD/CAM milling centres have set a new standard in terms of precision, they have limited dental technicians’ design freedom compared to classical lost-wax casting methods. At DentWise, we try to combine the best of both worlds; while maintaining and even extending the design freedom, we also achieve the highest precision on our implant suprastructures. This allows for the integration of additional features, which up until now were impossible to produce. A perfect example in this regard is SealWise, a new concept that integrates an individual sealing edge at each implant interface to match the gingival profile.”
“The design and manufacturing service provided by DentWise starts from a physical model and tooth setup that are digitised using our high-end scanning systems,” explains Peter Mercelis. “We are ready to go 100% digital, but we will probably have to wait until intra-oral scanners reach the required precision. Based on the acquired patient-specific geometry, we design the personalised structure in software and start printing it in titanium straight away. After turning out the suprastructure, the dental technician finishes it off and completes the final prothesis.”
Since 2004, the University of Leuven has been investigating the possibilities of additive manufacturing in the field of dental implant suprastructures. Thanks to the input of the department of prosthetic dentistry (Professor I. Naert), the novel methodology was developed for the production of implant-supported restorations. Clinical trials started in 2006 and since 2010 the DentWise implant structures have been brought to market through LayerWise-DentWise.