DESIGN OF CUSTOMIZED MOUTHGUARDS FOR 3D PRINTING USING A PARAMETRIC MODELING METHODOLOGY
Recep M. Görgülüarslan Selçuk Uzel
AbstractMouthguards are used for protection to prevent and reduce injury to teeth. Among various types of mouthguards, custom-fitted ones provide the best protection. However due to their high manufacturing time and cost and unsuitability to be designed parametrically, existing custom-fitted mouthguards are not practical enough. 3D printing technology offers new possibilities to overcome these issues. For this purpose, a methodology is developed in which a parametrically designed mouthguard is to be created using data from a 3D scanned teeth model of a person to manufacture by a 3D printer. Coronal and apical boundary curves for both buccal and palatal sides of teeth are offset away from the teeth surface to create the outer surface of the mouthguard between these curves and surface of the scanned teeth are used for the inner surface of the mouthguard. The 3D printing techniques and materials that can be used to manufacture the highly customized parametric mouthguard design are investigated. The performance of the designed mouthguard model is investigated using finite element (FE) analysis under the injury loading conditions.