Project description
Taking a 3D bite out of the fake teeth business
A hearty bite and a winning smile are big business in Europe, where only 41 % of Europeans still have all their natural teeth, according to the results of a Eurobarometer survey. There is a growing demand for faster, better quality and cheaper production of dentures. This is the goal of the EU-funded indepenDent project, which has developed a patented methodology for the automatic production of complete and partial dentures using coloured 3D printing and specifically designed material (PhilaDent). It provides perfect-quality dentures with a real look, produced in 2.5 hours so the patient can leave the dentist’s office with a full set of teeth after just a single visit.
Objective
Based on our 30+ years’ experience in the dentist industry we have developed a complete patented methodology for the automatic production of complete and partial dentures using coloured 3D printing. The result is a perfect quality denture with real look produced in 150 minutes so the patient can leave the dentistry with a full set of teeth after a single visit.
We have built a prototype and validated the full methodology using the available 3D printing materials. What hindered the commercialisation of the system was the availability of suitable 3D printing material that can be used for dental applications. For this reason we have decided to develop our own material (PhilaDent). Based on industry feedback our novel technology has great potential, hence we have been investing a lot of our resources to reach the current results. However, to maximise the social and commercial benefits of indepenDent we want to reach the commercial phase faster, hence we have decided to apply for SME Instrument funding. Therefore the aim of our Phase 1 project is to carry out a feasibility study in order to establish the ethical framework for legislating such materials and to update our commercialisation strategy for entering the market with the indepenDent system. For the Phase 2 project we plan to finalise the material to be used, certify it for dental applications and optimise our printer for the new material as well as implement communication actions for successful commercialisation.
The indepenDent system will have a huge economic and social impact on the dental industry. The faster, better quality and cheaper production of dentures will result in satisfied patients. In addition according to our forecast it will generate profits in the region of € 8 million 3 years after the development is completed. We have wide range of networks and have sold over 5,000 machines to the dental industry. This will give us the perfect environment to commercialise indepenDent.
Fields of science
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcolors
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineodontology
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementbusiness models
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringmanufacturing engineeringadditive manufacturing
- medical and health sciencesmedical biotechnologyimplants
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
1141 BUDAPEST
Hungary
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.