US-based Stratasys (www.stratasys.com) unveiled its Objet260 Dental Selection ‘3-D printer’ at the recent International Dental Show in Cologne.

The new printer, which features triple-jetting technology designed to help labs produce authentic dental models for testing, can use a variety of materials to print a mix of models on a single tray in one print job.

The Objet260 Dental Selection 3-D printer is compatible with all Polyjet dental materials, plus material palettes used to produce realistic colours and textures for gums and teeth. This will facilitate implant testing, with models that reproduce the right feel for accurate functional evaluation.

Furthermore, high-definition anatomical surgical guides that help to prevent dental nerve injury can be printed directly from CBCT (cone beam computed tomography) scan data.

Avery Cohen, Stratasys director (dental applications), said: “With the introduction of the Objet260 Dental Selection, Stratasys is closing the loop in digital dentistry by providing a 3-D printer that can take the colour digital file resulting from the intra-oral scanner and transform it into a colour, multi-texture dental model.

"This directly contributes to better accuracy for the dental practitioners and better understanding for the patients.”

Stefan Remplbauer, general manager of Austria-based 3DMedicalPrint, says: “We are using the Objet260 Dental Selection printer to produce realistic 3-D printed masks and models that we couldn’t do before; we could not produce models that so closely resemble the actual teeth and gums.

"The initial reactions from our customers, who include dental technicians, dentists and surgeons, have been extremely positive. This is definitely going to help set us apart from our competitors.”