I love this project - well done, and the result speaks for itself! It's unfortunate that you were forced to go this somewhat dangerous route due to money. In some countries dental care like that would be paid for by the health insurance.
I made my own clear plastic tooth aligners and they worked
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Re: I made my own clear plastic tooth aligners and they worked
#92It is smart that you designed the retainers based on maximum tolerance of tooth movement quoting from a textbook. I suggest you take X ray to make sure no root resorption have occurred. Also for those who want to imitate, measure the length of teeth and compare with the arch length to make sure the teeth can actually "fit" into the arch. I am a dental student.
By "length of teeth", do you mean their width measured along the arch of teeth, or vertically?
Re: I made my own clear plastic tooth aligners and they worked
#93This is cool but I can't say I agree with actually doing it. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should , particularly in matters of health. If you don't have the requisite experience and knowledge and training, it seems risky to go about something like this on your own.
I expect in the future we'll be hearing a lot of this kind of vague alarmist sentiment coming from well paid practitioners in industries so far untouched by technological competition & outsourcing.
Re: I made my own clear plastic tooth aligners and they worked
#94Interesting article. Waterpik is a related product (as in, for teeth and gums) that a dentist recommended. Anyone have experience using it - pros, cons?
Cheaper and better: http://oralbreeze.com/
I own one and love it.
Re: I made my own clear plastic tooth aligners and they worked
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Link?
This was the article: http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/well/2015/02/01/a-trip-to-th... I went with smilecareclub. They're pretty hands-off but it gets the job done and is a good value
I used to think ClearCorrect's competitive advantage was that they were much much cheaper than Invisalign so they could steal market share, but it appears they are now in the same ballpark. The ClearCorrect website says doctors set their own fees which can range from $1,000 to $7,000 USD.
Thanks for the link. It allowed me learn of even cheaper options.
Re: I made my own clear plastic tooth aligners and they worked
#96Awesome work! The animation definitely seems the most difficult (and subjective), but also the most cool! Body hacking via computed geometry! Invisalign (align technology) uses almost the same workflow. Market cap $5.89B. If you could move the workflow over to something based on WebGL / three.js - you could make this accessible to dentists in developing countries. Could be an awesome open source project. I think "all…
Invisalign seems to be mostly used for cosmetic fixes. That doesn't seem too compelling for a dentist in a developing country.
You'd be surprised. I work for a company that manages the technical side of a famiky of brace systems (one of which is a direct competitor to Invision). A lot of activity happening in places I'd least expect.
Re: I made my own clear plastic tooth aligners and they worked
#97Not to be a downer, but was any thought given to the safety of the plastic(s) used? This is something that's in your mouth a lot and constantly exposed to saliva. The Dimension 1200es mentioned doesn't appear to be specific to medical applications.[0] The product page lists the only compatible thermoplastic being ABSplus-P430 . The MSDS for that basically says the stuff is dangerous in molten form, and beyond that th…
This is a great point to raise. OP, please make sure that both the plastic you used, and the chemicals released as saliva gradually breaks down the plastic, are not going to be harmful. You wouldn't want long-term exposure of your gums to harmful agents. But that's probably the only concern. Regardless: great job. I'm very impressed by this project -- I love seeing applications of 3d printing. Especially one like thi…
> I love seeing applications of 3d printing.
So do we over at Additively (your post made me signup after just reading HN for a while). We publish showcases such as the commercial application of the posted aligners on our site - more curated showcases will be published soon.
https://www.additively.com/en/showcase
Edit: That's the commercial 3d printing use case mentioned (Invisalign isn't the only one):
https://www.additively.com/en/showcase/en/steiner-werkzeugma...
Re: I made my own clear plastic tooth aligners and they worked
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder why we avoid dentists? I know we all have the pain stories, but I think there's something else? As I gotten older, I just like to pretend they, along with MD's don't actually exist. What's ironic is I never met a dentist with the ego that seems to come with medical doctors. I've never met a dentist who was not a friendly person. I do feel bad when I can't respond to their questions with a mouth filled with c…
I used to wonder why people avoided dentists, but recently I cracked a molar and had to go to see a dentist. I was recommended a dentist in town, I showed up to a nice office full of nice people, they looked at my tooth and said they might be able to save it. So far, it was a pretty good experience. Then it got weird. They took me to a room with a business person who would discuss my "payment options and treatment pl…
My experience with "dentists these days" matches yours. I go in for a checkup, and instead I'm getting sales pitches for mouth guards and alignment thinggys, and electric toothbrushes and all sorts of obviously high-margin dental accessories. And then there's the "well we usually recommend quarterly visits, but will accept twice a year" when I explicitly tell them my insurance only allows one visit a year. I basically say no to everything, and they try to guilt trip me into a bunch of optional procedures for a half an hour. Finally, eventually, they grudgingly clean my teeth.
It's like a shady auto mechanic for people who don't know anything about cars. You go in for an oil change, and they of course identify all sorts of optional repairs, making them sound super scary. "I'm not saying this small oil pan gasket leak will leave you by the side of the road, but you don't want to get behind on preventative maintenance!" Same tactic.
The icing on the cake is when, fast forward a few months, my insurance company sends me notice that they won't cover the visit because the dentist wrote the work up as "orthodontic prep" instead of "standard cleaning" so I need to contact them to get it corrected... and on and on...
I remember when you could go to the dentist, get a cleaning, be out of there in 45 minutes and be down about $100.
Re: I made my own clear plastic tooth aligners and they worked
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you imagine people in countries east of Austria as ugly bunch with crooked teeth, because we're developing and never heard of cosmetic dentistry?
Actually, the usual place to stereotype as having crooked teeth is the UK, which is firmly in the "developed" group of countries. To answer your question, no, "crooked teeth" isn't in the usual list of stereotypes people have about Eastern Europeans.
IMHO in the UK teeth straighting is perceived as extremely vain. So in the UK straighting teeth is more a taboo than not.
Re: I made my own clear plastic tooth aligners and they worked
#100Now that is awesome--those things aren't cheap. I'm going to send this to my dentist (who's cool enough to appreciate it).
they're not, but this blog post made it seem like they're worth the money. I don't know how I feel about this post. I don't know if I can consider it a diy project when he has access to equipment beyond the reach of most ppl. if I had access to an orthodontist lab and build my own retainer using their equipment is that considered diy?
The only equipment here that might be an issue for most people is the laser scanner. I'm not sure where I'd find one of those outside a university that's accurate enough. The Makerbot one is pretty shitty.
Everything else could be pretty easily sourced. Shapeways can 3d print with very good resolution. You can buy a vacuum forming machine from Ebay for 100 bucks for exactly this purpose, or make one yourself with a heat gun, wood, and a shop vac (there's tutorials on youtube).