3D printing has come a long way. No longer solely the realm of printing figures and props for D&D campaigns, 3D printing is finding itself expanding into all walks of life, including your mouth.
As CNN reports, 22-year-old Tennessee engineer Connor Gibson is using 3D printing tech, the closest we’ve ever come to building Star Trek’s replicator technology, to make free dentures for people who might not be able to afford them. Working with Remote Area Medical, Gibson has helped turn a process that once took up to three months into one that can take just a few hours.
Gibson volunteered with the nonprofit while studying engineering at Walters State Community College. He had no background in dentistry and didn’t know much about 3D printing, but decided it wasn’t much of an issue. He taught himself dental anatomy and digital design, learning the ins and outs of the software needed to manufacture custom dentures based on each patient’s scans.
“Honestly, if you told me three years ago, this is what I would be doing, I would have called you crazy,” he told CNN.
This Mobile 3D Printing Lab Can Make Free Dentures in a Single Weekend
He’s now RAM’s digital technology manager, with a mobile office loaded with two 3D printers that run round-the-clock on weekends. Gibson has printed as many as 35 sets of dentures in a single weekend. This guy has more of a claim to the title of Tooth Fairy, leaving behind much-needed teeth wherever he goes, than the actual Tooth Fairy, who is a notorious tooth thief.
“Mirror moments” is what Gibson calls the experience of watching someone with a freshly printed set of dentures see their new, beautiful mouth of teeth in the mirror for the first time, with some openly weeping at a sight they never imagined they would get to see again. He is a dental savior at a time when millions of Americans lack dental insurance and when Medicare lacks dental coverage for some.
All from someone who didn’t have an engineering degree, didn’t go to dental school, and didn’t know much about 3D printing before he got into it.
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