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How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers

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Re: How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers

#71

Post by ricardobeat »

tredre3 wrote: post #52
tombert wrote: post #28

Tangential, but I have sleep apnea. Fortunately I have it mild enough to get away with a mouthpiece instead of a CPAP (which is good anyway because I also have bruxism). The mouthpiece works great and I would recommend everyone get tested for sleep apnea if your insurance covers it, but I have to admit that paying for it bothered me. Even with insurance covering some of it, it cost me about $600. I know that there's…

I think your comment would have been more insightful if you had at least pretended to try to account for labor before saying "They charged me 4000x the cost of goods!". To be clear I'm not even asking for you to account for the cost of your printer, the 3d scanner, and software licenses in your math. Let's assume that all those are free. How many hours of specialized human time was spent on consultations, scans, desi…

Yes, they will charge a similar amount for producing another guard from an existing scan - I’ve had that done. It was also completely unnecessary in my case, it’s clearly an easy money grab for some offices.

Re: How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers

#72

Post by aewens »

LurkandComment wrote: post #65

1) Currently on invisign - mould 24 of 42 2) For 5k (Cdn) - I get 42 moulds, a method used to scan and submit my progress for each mould duration, feedback and advice from a dentist, a scan test to see who they fit 3) Considering the cost of braces and the flexibility these allow (as long as you are disciplined in wearing them) it's well worth it 4) My teeth were really misaligned. At 42 I just decided to do it so I…

Just be prepared near the end for refinements. When I did mine, I had to do another 6 months of refinements near the end to help get the locking of my bite grip to be where it needs to be. I was otherwise expecting that day to be when I’d be done, and later learned refinements are a fairly common occurrence when going through Invisalign.

As the sibling comment, it’s definitely worth it. Best of luck!

Re: How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers

#73

Post by cryzinger »

tredre3 wrote: post #52
tombert wrote: post #28

Tangential, but I have sleep apnea. Fortunately I have it mild enough to get away with a mouthpiece instead of a CPAP (which is good anyway because I also have bruxism). The mouthpiece works great and I would recommend everyone get tested for sleep apnea if your insurance covers it, but I have to admit that paying for it bothered me. Even with insurance covering some of it, it cost me about $600. I know that there's…

I think your comment would have been more insightful if you had at least pretended to try to account for labor before saying "They charged me 4000x the cost of goods!". To be clear I'm not even asking for you to account for the cost of your printer, the 3d scanner, and software licenses in your math. Let's assume that all those are free. How many hours of specialized human time was spent on consultations, scans, desi…

Even if the actual specialist labor had been minimal, there's also the amount of time and effort it takes to accumulate enough knowledge to become a specialist. It's like the joke about spending $200 for a repair guy to come kick your printer in just the right spot to fix a print jam--you pay him $50 for kicking it, and $150 for knowing where to kick it :)

Re: How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers

#74

Post by hattmall »

kube-system wrote: post #10
hattmall wrote: post #2

So shouldn't this really be something that could be opened sourced. I think I've seen a few write ups of people that did their own, but seems like a highly functional implementation could be democratized.

Orthodontics is simply “making a retainer” the same way orthopedics is simply “putting screws in a leg”. The difficult part is not the manufacturing, but knowing how to do it properly so you don’t harm the patient.

Sure, but it's a more or less a formulaic process. There's not on the fly decision making or emergency responses like in orthopaedic surgery or any other surgical design. You make a mold or scan of teeth. Calculate the adjustments, make the retainer, repeat. With a more widely available tooling the process could be even more monitored. i.e. Bi-weekly instead of monthly molds for faster and more precise results.

Re: How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers

#75

Post by hattmall »

adwi wrote: post #5
hattmall wrote: post #2

So shouldn't this really be something that could be opened sourced. I think I've seen a few write ups of people that did their own, but seems like a highly functional implementation could be democratized.

https://amosdudley.com/weblog/Ortho

Thank you, and that was 10 years ago!

Re: How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers

#76

Post by nntwozz »

LurkandComment wrote: post #65

1) Currently on invisign - mould 24 of 42 2) For 5k (Cdn) - I get 42 moulds, a method used to scan and submit my progress for each mould duration, feedback and advice from a dentist, a scan test to see who they fit 3) Considering the cost of braces and the flexibility these allow (as long as you are disciplined in wearing them) it's well worth it 4) My teeth were really misaligned. At 42 I just decided to do it so I…

I've had good smile all my life but now at 41 I've started to feel a tightness between my teeth.

Lo and behold I read that as we age the jaws shrink which makes the teeth crowd together.

I'm going for a free mouth scan in a couple weeks.

Re: How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers

#77

Post by joe_mamba »

avensec wrote: post #46
joe_mamba wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They used a specialized sort of 3D camera on a stick to get an incredibly accurate model of my mouth AFAIK Align's 3D scanning system is more or less branched from the same Israeli tech that went into the Xbox 360 kinect camera and the iPhone face-ID.

While both were originally companies based in Israel, the technology behind the Kinect is different. iTero scanners (owned by Align Technology) use parallel confocal imaging via red light lasers. Their newer models also use Multi-Direct Capture techniques. Kinect used a Light Coding technique, an infrared projector and camera. It was developed by a company called PrimeSense, which was later purchased by Apple.

>"The iTero intraoral scanner was originally developed by Cadent, Ltd., a company based in Israel."

There's something with Israel and 3D scanning tech. But I don't think I would like the answer.

Re: How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers

#78

Post by Insanity »

Oarch wrote: post #68
LurkandComment wrote: post #65

1) Currently on invisign - mould 24 of 42 2) For 5k (Cdn) - I get 42 moulds, a method used to scan and submit my progress for each mould duration, feedback and advice from a dentist, a scan test to see who they fit 3) Considering the cost of braces and the flexibility these allow (as long as you are disciplined in wearing them) it's well worth it 4) My teeth were really misaligned. At 42 I just decided to do it so I…

Best of luck! I completed mine 2 years ago and have to say it was 100% worth the patience.

My SO is now using it. I’m waiting for her impressions to decide if I want to do so.

The dentist told me I’d only need it for like 3-4 months, minor corrections. But it seems like such a hassle. Always having to remove it before eating anywhere, no coffee, and gotta make sure I’d always travel with the next set of aligners etc.

Glad it worked well for you though!

Re: How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers

#80

Post by com2kid »

Insanity wrote: post #78
Oarch wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Best of luck! I completed mine 2 years ago and have to say it was 100% worth the patience.

My SO is now using it. I’m waiting for her impressions to decide if I want to do so. The dentist told me I’d only need it for like 3-4 months, minor corrections. But it seems like such a hassle. Always having to remove it before eating anywhere, no coffee, and gotta make sure I’d always travel with the next set of aligners etc. Glad it worked well for you though!

I lost a few pounds doing it because snacking became so annoying. :)
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