Bringing Accuracy and Stability to Modern Dental Modeling

     2025.11.25                                               NextShapes,Precision Stone,3D Printing                ＜1 minute                                                                   

For decades, the most trusted dental models were produced through manual casting—labor-intensive, time-consuming processes involving plaster, trimming, and repeated adjustments. These traditional methods created the foundation for restorative dentistry and orthodontics, yet they often lacked consistency and the fine detail required for increasingly digital clinical workflows.

This year marks a transition to a new generation of precision modeling: a full-arch orthodontic model printed with NextShapes Precision Stone, a 355 nm SLA resin engineered to deliver exceptional accuracy, sharp anatomical definition, and stable mechanical performance. The project, developed in collaboration with a digital dentistry team exploring new fabrication methods, demonstrates how additive manufacturing can elevate the entire clinical modeling process.

The printed model serves as a reference for orthodontic planning, appliance fabrication, and educational demonstration. With its clean white tone, high surface fidelity, and dimensional stability, it offers both functional and visual clarity—helping practitioners and students study the nuances of occlusion, anatomical morphology, and treatment progression.

A Material That Captures Precision
“When transitioning to digital workflows, what clinicians need most is confidence—confidence that the printed model truly reflects the patient’s anatomy,” one designer involved in the project said. “We wanted to create a model that not only captured detail, but preserved it.”

Precision Stone was developed for exactly this purpose. Engineered for 355 nm stereolithography systems, the resin produces crisp, finely textured surfaces that reveal tooth morphology, gingival contours, and alignment features with exceptional clarity.

Unlike conventional model materials that may warp or degrade when exposed to temperature fluctuations or repeated handling, Precision Stone maintains:

• High-dimensional accuracy, preserving arch geometry and occlusal relationships.
• Fine detail reproduction, enabling clear visualization of fissures, contact points, and appliance interfaces.
• High strength and hardness, suitable for repeated demonstrations, appliance fitting, or lab workflows.
• Strong heat resistance and minimal deformation, ensuring stability during thermoforming or benchside procedures.

The result is a model engineered not only to look accurate, but to stay accurate.
The team selected a clean white aesthetic for the material, echoing the look of traditional stone but delivering the sharpness and stability that only a digital material can achieve. The uniform coloration also enhances contrast under clinical lighting, making the model a practical tool for both diagnosis and teaching.

3D Printing a High-Accuracy Dental Model
Producing these orthodontic and diagnostic models has traditionally required casting dies, trimming, articulating, and manually correcting imperfections—a slow, error-prone process. Even with early digital workflows, many 3D printed models suffered from curling, brittleness, or insufficient surface sharpness, limiting their reliability.

“Previously, achieving consistently accurate, stable, and highly detailed dental models at this scale was a challenge,” the engineering lead on the project explained. “Precision Stone allowed us to rethink what’s possible in model fabrication.”

The model was constructed from high-resolution surface data and printed as a single solid structure. Precision Stone’s mechanical profile ensures that fine ridges, cusp tips, undercuts, and gingival textures appear clearly directly from the build platform.

Post-processing required cleaning and curing, but thanks to the resin’s formulation, no extensive sanding or reinforcing was necessary. The printed model retained its shape even during procedures involving localized heat, such as vacuum-forming aligner materials.

The project utilized a fleet of 355 nm SLA printers operating continuously over a multi-day period, enabling the production of multiple orthodontic cases, study models, and training sets. For high-volume labs, automated or parallel printing workflows allow dozens of models to be produced with minimal operator intervention—an accelerated alternative to traditional casting.

Visit the Digital Workflow in Practice
The completed models are now being used in clinics, laboratories, and training centers, exploring the future of digital dentistry. Practitioners can evaluate occlusal adjustments, educators can demonstrate treatment principles to students, and technicians can fabricate clear aligners directly over the printed models.

“At a time when digital dentistry is transforming patient care, it’s essential to have modeling materials that are accurate, stable, and reliable,” one clinical coordinator noted. “Precision Stone provides a foundation we can trust.”

The project highlights how NextShapes materials and modern SLA systems can merge design, anatomy, and fabrication into a unified digital process—one that brings precision and efficiency to orthodontics, prosthodontics, and dental education.

Discover the Full Potential of Precision Stone
Precision Stone is compatible with most SLA 3D printers on the market, enabling you to reliably produce high-precision, finely detailed, and dimensionally stable dental models across different devices.

To learn more about its performance, request sample prints, or discuss high-volume production options, reach out to our sales team. Let Precision Stone support every step of your digital dentistry workflow.