Three Dimensional Printed Surgical Guides: Effect of Time on Dimensional Stability

Area of Science:

• Biomaterials Science
• Dental Engineering
• Surgical Technology

Background:

• 3D-printed surgical guides are increasingly used in computer-guided surgery.
• Assessing the dimensional stability of these guides over time is critical for maintaining surgical accuracy.
• Digital light processing (DLP) is a common 3D-printing technology for surgical guides.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the in vitro dimensional stability of 3D-printed surgical guides over a 20-day period.
• To quantify variations in the intaglio surface and sleeve housings of surgical guides.
• To determine the effect of time on the dimensional accuracy of 3D-printed surgical guides.

Main Methods:

• Ten DLP 3D-printed surgical guides were scanned at multiple time points (0, 5, 10, 15, 20 days).
• Standard Tessellation Language (STL) files were compared to the reference CAD project.
• Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) of the intaglio surface and deviations in sleeve housings were measured.
• Generalized estimating equations were used to analyze the effect of time.

Main Results:

• Time significantly affected dimensional variations in sleeve housings and teeth intaglio surfaces (p < 0.001).
• Mucosa intaglio surface MAD showed less variation but was significantly affected by time-volume interaction (p = 0.012).
• Axial and linear deviations in sleeve housings exhibited time-dependent patterns.

Conclusions:

• Postmanufacturing dimensional variations in 3D-printed surgical guides are statistically significant.
• These variations, though limited, contribute to the overall error in computer-guided surgery.
• Further research is needed to mitigate these dimensional changes and improve surgical guide accuracy.