Navy Sailors Receive 3D Printed Dental Prosthetics

Recently, two Sailors of the United States Navy received emergency dental prosthetics thanks to 3D printing. The procedure made military medical history for being the first of its kind to ever be performed on Navy sailors during a career assignment. The successful use of 3D printing marks a milestone for the use of the technologies in the Navy and opens the door for its extended use in the future.

Dental issues are always an unpleasant affair, and they always seem to appear in times in which they can’t be more inconvenient. Depending on the severity of the issues, the process of fixing the matter can often be a long and weary endeavor, causing an individual to delay all plans and tasks. Exactly that kind of misfortune recently came over two U.S. Navy Sailors, who were on duty aboard the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) and USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) when their dental problems started to become an issue. Thanks to additive manufacturing technologies, however, U.S. Navy dentists were able to quickly and successfully remove the Sailors’ failing teeth and implant new 3D printed prosthetics, allowing them to get back on duty after only two weeks.

A model of 3D-printed teeth, simillar ones were implanted on the two Navy Sailors

The Process of Restoring Teeth Through AM Technologies

As soon as the problems were acknowledged, the sailors aboard the two navy carriers sought help from the navy dentists on the ships, who are accompanying the sailors, especially for such purposes. Every American aircraft carrier, which carry roughly six thousand active-duty Sailors, includes around five dentists. Aside from that, eight of America’s eleven aircraft carriers are nowadays also equipped with state of the art digital dental equipment such as intraoral scanners, which provide soldiers with high-quality medical care.