Additive Manufacturing Technologies Used for Processing Polymers: Current Status and Potential Application in Prosthetic Dentistry

Abstract

There are 7 categories of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, and a wide variety of materials can be used to build a CAD 3D object. The present article reviews the main AM processes for polymers for dental applications: stereolithography (SLA), digital light processing (DLP), material jetting (MJ), and material extrusion (ME). The manufacturing process, accuracy, and precision of these methods will be reviewed, as well as their prosthodontic applications.

Keywords: 3D printing; additive manufacturing technologies; digital light processing; fused deposition modelling; material extrusion; material jetting; multijet printing; prosthodontics; stereolithography.