(Newswire.net — April 11, 2016) — By the time most kids reach college, they’ve completed the braces phase. They had their teeth filled with metal so they’d have a perfectly straight smile for the rest of their lives.
But not all college students are so lucky. Some lose their retainers and allow their teeth to revert, which requires braces again when they’re older. Though it’s never too late to get braces, a mouth full of metal embarrasses most adults. Some just can’t afford expensive invisible aligners.
This was the case for Amos Dudley, a senior at The New Jersey Institute of Technology. But he found a creative way to solve his need for expensive tooth adjustment.
After he forgot to wear his retainer as a teen, his teeth began to move back to their former positions. Before long, he was embarrassed to smile.
For a 24-year-old getting ready to graduate, an expensive mouthful of metal wasn’t an option. With piles of college financing debt, Dudley couldn’t afford to pay the thousands for invisible aligners.
Still, he liked the ideas of braces he could wear without most other people being the wiser. Lacking a lot of money to spend, but having access to the 3-D printer at his college, he tackled a 16-week project during which he put his 3-D tech skills to work and created his own model of invisible braces … and it cost him less than $60 for the entire set.
USA Today College found the story intriguing and reached out to Dudley for comments regarding what inspired him to undertake the project. “I put together in my mind that this was, for one thing, possible, but also it might be an interesting project because it’s disruptive in a way to an industry that a lot of people take for granted.”
The 3-D Process
If you’re interested in seeing how Dudley developed the printing model to fit his particular mouth, he described the process on his blog. “What is to stop someone, who has access to a 3D printer, from making their own orthodontic aligners?” Dudley wrote. “Turns out, not much!”
He goes on to explain how he made a simple mold of his teeth, just as he’d have done in the dentist’s office, and scanned it into his software. “Then it was just a matter of animating them into their correct positions,” he wrote.
“I measured the total distance of travel, and divided it by the maximum recommended distance a tooth can travel per aligner. Each frame of animation was baked into a new STL model.”
This is a much more difficult process than it might sounds on the surface. It takes a high level of understanding of both modeling software and digital technologies to make it happen, and it takes a lot of time: in this case, a full 16 weeks.
“As far as I know, I’m the first person to have tried DIY-ing plastic aligners. They’re much more comfortable than braces, and fit my teeth quite well. I was pleased to find, when I put the first one on, that it only seemed to put any noticeable pressure on the teeth that I planned to move — a success!” he concluded.
“Most importantly, I feel like I can freely smile again.”
Don’t Try This At Home
Dudley’s blog is impressive, and his achievement incredibly exciting, especially for such a young professional. However, this isn’t a project the average person should attempt.
Dudley himself posts the caveat on his blog: “Warning: Do not attempt anything written here; I assume no liability for any actions you take to modify your body.”
Orthodontists have commented on the procedure, and stated that if anyone with less knowledge and skill than Dudley had attempted this project, the results could have been catastrophic. The techniques of orthodontia involve a science that requires years of schooling, as much as any doctor.
“That’s why people go for years to learn the skills, the anatomy that allow them to become a doctor or surgeon,” Chip Case, an orthodontist in Charlotte, NC told USA Today College. “It’s probably better to leave that to professionals that know how to do it. I’m not sure he knows what he’s messing with.”
It’s a pretty spectacular innovation that’s worth commending, but as this orthodontist says, it’s probably best to leave this kind of work to those who trained for it.