I'm sure I can

[Warning: Do not attempt anything written here; I assume no liability for any actions you take to modify your body. ]

As I don’t have an expensive dentist 3D scanner, the first step is to mold my jaw, in order to have something to scan after. Keeping also a referential of my original jaw is a good idea !
For that I needed:

• • • A dental tray (3D printed)
    • Alginate powder
    • White plaster

The alginate powder is an amazing thing, it captures a lot of details (as your tongue hiding in the back of your mouth during the molding 🙂 )

I bought this alginate powder from Amazon but use local shop if you can. (And if
(If you want orange or mint flavored alginate powder, find some dentist supplier on the web)
About 10gr of it is enough to realize a molding of a jaw (up or down)
It’s pretty easy to mold your jaw, but there is 2 things that you need to pay attention to:

• • • This powder stiffens quick, so as soon as it’s pink, it’s time to mold ! (heat and air accelerate the hardening process)
    • Having of mold of the last molars is hard but useful

Keeping the alginate molding in the tray is a good idea ! Altering the mold even by a few tens of millimeters will result in a wrong plaster molding.

Then I used white plaster, from Amazon again, shame.
I circled the tray with some flexible plastic sheet, scoth it and fill it with liquid plaster.
After drying, I removed unnecessary details and plaster with my Dremel.

The result is really amazing !
I did it two or three times, in order to have the best possible molding (with the maximum shape of the last molar).

Next step, the 3D scan !

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:

• • • 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

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:

1. 1. 1. Obtaining a 3D scan of my teeth
      2. Manipulate the 3D object and realize the tooth-alignment-animation
      3. Vacuumforming the aligners

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. ]

 

• • • Molding
    • 3D Scan
    • 3D Edition
    • 3D Printing
    • Thermoforming
    • Cutting
    • Conclusion