Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 6, 2026
Accuracy in Dental Medicine, A New Way to Measure Trueness and Precision
Published on: April 29, 2014
Comparing the accuracy of 3 different liquid crystal display printers for dental model printing
Ioannis A Tsolakis1, Ioannis Lyros2, Isidora Christopoulou2
1Department of Orthodontics, School of Dentistry, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece; Department of Orthodontics, School of Dental Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH.
Introduction:
This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy in terms of trueness and precision of 3 different liquid crystal display (LCD) printers with different cost levels.
Methods:
Three LCD 3-dimensional (3D) printers were categorized into tiers 1-3 on the basis of cost level. The printers' accuracies were assessed in terms of trueness and precision. For this research, 10 standard tessellation language (STL) reference files were used. For trueness, each STL file was printed once with each 3D printer. For precision, 1 randomly chosen STL file was printed 10 times with each 3D printer. After that, a model scanner was used to scan the models, and STL comparisons were performed using reverse engineering software. For the measurements regarding trueness and precision, the Friedman test was used.
Results:
There were significant differences among the 3 printers (P <0.05). The trueness and precision error were lower in models printed with a tier-1 printer than in the remaining 3D printers (P <0.05). The tier-2 and -3 printers presented very similar performance.
Conclusions:
LCD 3D printers can be accurately used in orthodontics for model printing depending on the specific orthodontic use. The cost of a printer is relevant to the results only for the higher expense of the 3D printer in this study.
