SmarTech Analysis has published the fifth edition of its Additive Manufacturing in Dentistry report. The firm projects that the total market for AM in dentistry will surpass $2.7 billion (USD) in 2019 (hardware, services, materials and software).  The report also says that by 2022 as many as 500 million dental devices and restorations will be produced annually via additive manufacturing, driving the overall segment to top $9 billion by the end of the forecast period in 2028.

Scott Dunham, VP of Research at SmarTech Analysis and author of the report, notes that an emerging dental industry transformation is taking place from converging forces –with 3D printing technology at the center of the change. The flexible, digital print processes now being rapidly adopted will help catalyze other ongoing trends in dentistry, including higher levels of chairside and in-office dental device production, laboratory business model evolution, and a focus on corporate dentistry.

Within this scenario, direct and indirect end-use applications such as clear dental aligners could change dental 3D printing forever.  “Clear dental aligners, like those marketed by Align Technologies under the Invisalign brand, have grown by leaps and bounds over the last several years,” Dunham said during a recent Q&A session run in partnership with 3dpbm. “The vast, overwhelming majority of these devices are produced via a combination of 3D printing and traditional thermoforming, and are perhaps the single highest volume application for 3D printing technologies in the world today. Clearly, this is an area of great interest to the 3D printing industry at large, but also the dental industry.”

Across regional dental markets, a growing focus in the last year has been placed on increasing access to dental care in the face of aging populations in the West and improving access to quality care in emerging economies in Asia, South America, and areas of the Middle East. SmarTech anticipates that low-cost dental printers, and the next generation of highly productive, cost-effective dental 3D printers, can help serve these needs in the future

The level of industry activity and collaboration in the dental printing space in the last year has not slowed. The most strategically significant technical evolutions in printer hardware are the development of automated systems and the development of higher printing speed systems, both of which stand to significantly improve productivity and potential for use in-office, as well as further adoption in areas of dentistry such as clear aligners and denture production.

Prepared on the basis of information from 3dprintingmedia.network