A feasibility study on laser rapid forming of a complete titanium denture base plate.

This work attempted to integrate the technologies of computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacture (CAD/CAM) and laser rapid forming (LRF) for the fabrication of the titanium plate of a complete denture. By the combination of laser scan and reverse engineering software, the standard triangulation language (STL)-formatted denture base plate was finally designed and sliced into a sequence of numerical controlled codes. The titanium (Ti) complete denture plate was finally built, layer-by-layer, on the LRF system. To evaluate the quality of fit, a virtual adaptation test that measured and compared the profiles of the laser free formed denture plate and those of the edentulous plaster cast had been conducted, and the mean deviation was found to be 0.34 mm. After traditional dental finishing techniques, a complete denture with a Ti base plate was then made and judged to be acceptable. The CAD/CAM/LRF system is a potential candidate and a new platform for the design and manufacture of custom-made Ti denture plates and restorations.