Since january 2020, I’m working on a new project : orthodentics !
I read an article, years ago, on a student (Amos) that did his own aligners with machines that had access at his university. By this time, it was just an interesting article, because I didn’t have access to this kind of tools. Time has passed, and recently my wife follow an orthodentic programm to realign her teeth, and the idea came back.
Since last year, I’m a proud owner of a 3D-printer, that was the starting point from my point of view, so I studied the subject for weeks and decided to try it !
Also, I have a past with dentists : I’ve seen them to much during my youth. So the idea of avoiding them, and doing a DIM (Do It Myself) project was really attractive.
The idea is to realign my teeth by my own.
For that, I need:
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- Molding tools and skills
- A 3D scan of my teeth
- A computer
- A 3D printer
- Dental material (plastics sheets)
- A vacuum thermoforming machine
- A Dremel-like tool
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Except for the computer and the 3D printer, I didn’t have any of the rest and no idea how to do that, so I google-searched !
The 3 big challenges for me were:
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- Obtaining a 3D scan of my teeth
- Manipulate the 3D object and realize the tooth-alignment-animation
- Vacuumforming the aligners
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Today is 19th of march, I’ve solved the challenges, and I’m wearing an aligner for 1 week now !
Amos article has been very interesting, however I had to adapt some part.
I’m gonna write separate articles for each steps of the process. The idea is to share my project and excitement about it, to also share my result.
But in any way, it’s not meant to be a DIY tutorial.
As I share Amos recommandation, I’ll just copy-paste his warning.
[Warning: Do not attempt anything written here; I assume no liability for any actions you take to modify your body. ]