Transcript:
Hi. I’m Caitlin. I work in the digital lab with Dr. Desantis and today we are getting ready to do some 3d print so that we can make some aligners and we’ll show you that process, so the first thing that we do is take each individual file and we are going to load them onto our build platform, so this is the first step in getting our prints ready for the 3d printer, every single aligner that you wear has a model that goes with it. So each aligner is about two degrees of movement, and there is a 3d printed model for each one of those liners when we line them up on the printer here. We want to make sure that they’re not touching each other. These are all going to be printed individually, so I’m just blending them up to make sure that they’re not going to be stuck together when we’re done. This entire print is going to take about 30 minutes, so that was pretty fast. When we first started printing, it used to take us about four hours to print models, so things moved along pretty quickly. So this is the resin that the models are made out of so it is light cured in the printer. We always mix it really good first to make sure we have a nice consistency and then we’re just starting the printer here, so all the prints are loaded to that printer, and we just press start. You can see. There are 30 minutes and 155 layers for this print, so it’s going to like here Each individual layer of those 155 layers, and then we’ll have a beautiful printed set of models at the end so you can see the build platform will dip down into the liquid, and then when it comes back up, you’ll be able to see the completed prints. [MUSIC] Take them off of there and start. Our washing process so here are finished prints. You can still see some of the uncured resin on the build platform, so we’ll use a little spatula to take these off. They’re stuck pretty nicely to that build platform a little tough to get off there so now we’re washing them in alcohol. We have a few of different steps. We put them through a couple of rinses and then they’re going to go into this automated washer, so we’ll drop them down in this little basket and they’ll swish around in there. So this is 99% Isopropyl alcohol. It is going to wash away all the uncured resin, so we have a nice, clean model of just the cure of resin, so it’s going to go for a little spin in here, washes for about 10 minutes in this washer, and then well set it out to dry, and then they are going to go into a light cure. So this is the same kind of light cure. When you get your nails done, we just slide this under there and it gets them almost completely ready. So now we are actually making the aligners, so we use a vacuum form machine and special material. This material is designed to be tough but also flexible, so it will gently guide your teeth to their corrected positions. We’re gonna put the models on the machine. It heats the material and then we’ll vacuum form it to the model so now we’re just popping that guy out of there. We are going to trim it out of the plastic, so get all the extra plastic off of there, and then we’ll remove the model from the aligner and trim it down a little bit more you so you can see. We cut the backs off, so then we can just gently take your aligner off of the model, and then we’ll trim it out. So each individual aligner is handmade by one of our members of the digital team here, and we inspect them to make sure that there aren’t any pokey pieces or anything that’s sharp, so that is one of the benefits of doing it by hand, so we get to really look at it and inspect them thoroughly, so she’s just cutting around making sure that all that extra plastic is off and then we’ll move on to polishing, so we use this little polishing wheel here to go around every edge of your aligner. Make sure that nothing is going to be bothering your lips, cheeks gums. We go around the entire aligner until it’s perfectly smooth and ready to go you, and that is a beautiful aligner right here, So the next step will just be a disinfection and then bagging it and then time diploma thanks for watching our video on clear Aligners and 3d printing come back to our channel to see more videos that we’re going to upload on orthodontics, and don’t forget to Like and subscribe, Come back to our channel to watch more videos about making beautiful smiles [Music].