Solid Freeform Fabrication of Permanent Dental Restorations via Slurry Micro‐Extrusion

Abstract

A solid freeform fabrication procedure for human dental restorations via a slurry micro‐extrusion process is described. A dental porcelain slurry is developed with pseudoplastic property and moderate viscosity, which permits the slurry to be extruded at low extrusion pressure and have good shape‐keeping ability. A green tooth can be produced by this method directly from a CAD digital model in 30 min. The sintering shrinkage of the green tooth is uniform. The microstructure of the sintered tooth is identical to that made via the traditional dental restoration processes. This new dental restoration process presents potential to provide dental patients with better, faster, and less expensive service.