Fabrication of biocompatible dental implants for strategic teeth of veterinary patients using metal printing

Direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) is a commercially established technology in human dentistry for the 3D printing of dental crowns (DC) and implants requiring customized solutions. But hitherto, little has been reported on the use of DMLS for the fabrication of DC/implants in veterinary dentistry (VD), especially for canines. One of the basic differences in the case of humans and canines is that a particular breed of canine has interchangeability of strategic tooth (ST) and hence may be prepared in batches unlike for human DC. This study articulates the effect of DMLS process parameters (laser power (LP), in-fill pattern, and volume to surface area (V/A) of DC) on surface roughness (Ra), dimensional accuracy (△d), surface hardness, and morphological features of 17–4 precipitation hardened (PH) stainless steel (SS) based ST from multi-factor optimization viewpoint for batch production of DC. The study recommends that 110 W LP, 0.286 mm V/A, and rectangular in-fill pattern are the best settings of input process parameters for DMLS resulting in Ra 15–37 μm, hardness 432–498 HV, △d 0.01–0.04 mm for batch production of DC. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis were performed to understand the effect of energy density, powder distribution, staircase effect, and curing on grain structure, porosity, and Ra of DMLS-based DC. Further, based on ISO standards; international grades of tolerance (IT), the dimensions of metal printed parts were calculated to assist the dental surgeon in the final assembly.