Digitizing the Smile: Ben Wynne on the Future—and Ethics—of Automated Dentistry

Anyone who has swapped traditional braces for clear dental aligners knows the appeal: aligners are much more comfortable and inconspicuous, compared to wires in your mouth. As this consumer preference for a more discreet orthodontic experience drives a massive market shift, it is also fueling an explosion in dental 3D printing, a sector projected to skyrocket from roughly $3 billion today to more than $12 billion by 2032.

Scaling this consumer trend, however, presents a manufacturing challenge. Because no two smiles are identical, every single aligner must be custom-manufactured. To eliminate the friction of this high-volume customization, San Diego-based Intrepid Automation is stepping into the sector. The company leverages patented modular Digital Light Processing, advanced robotics, and AI-driven quality control, to serve high-stakes industries like aerospace, defense, and industrial casting. By introducing continuous manufacturing and automated post-processing, Intrepid aims to replace slow manufacturing lines with flexible, high-speed digital supply chains, equally applicable to the dental industry.

We sat down with Ben Wynne, CTO and Co-Founder of Intrepid Automation, to discuss how additive manufacturing is reshaping dental production, Intrepid’s automated approach to mass customization, and the complex ethical questions emerging alongside automated digital healthcare. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.