Source: SmarTech Publishing
According to a latest report from SmarTech Publishing – a leading provider of industry analysis and market forecasts for the 3D printing/additive manufacturing, the dental 3D printing market is estimated to reach a staggering $9.7 billion by the year 2027. According to the same report, the dental 3D printing market recorded growth of 35% year-on-year (YoY) basis for the second year in a row in 2017.
The growth in the dental 3D printing market has been fuelled by the increasing acceptance and adoption of 3D printing technology in the sector. SmarTech Publishing believes that 3D printing technologies will overtake digital subtractive milling and traditional analog fabrication processes and will become the leading way of producing dental restorations and devices around the world by the year 2027.
SmarTech also believes that technological advances currently underway in the 3D printing technologies such as the increasing access to desktop photopolymerisation systems is what going to enhance additive technologies’ position in the dental industry.
Above: 3D printed Dental LT Clear Splints by Formlabs. SmarTech estimates that Formlabs has increased market share by 20 percent in the last two years in the dental photpolymerization market/Image Credit: Formlabs
SmarTech believes that 3D printing technologies will benefit in the coming decades as global dental industry embraces digital processes as against the existing digital dentistry solutions such as subtractive milling. Even though milling technologies continue to hold a major chunk of the production of permanent aesthetic dental restorations using materials such as ceramics, 3D printing will soon outpace the growth of milling technologies due to its ability to provide high value for dentists, laboratory technicians, orthodontists and oral surgeons.
Apart from these, it is also anticipated that dental printing technologies that make use of both metal and resin based printing processes will revolutionise the dental industry because of their ability to produce vivid range of dental devices.
SmarTech also estimates that one area where additive manufacturing will provide the largest opportunity in the dental sector will be the metal additive manufacturing. SmarTech estimates that metal additive manufacturing will play a vital role in the future of dental printing owing to the increasing ability of companies to develop direct-metal dental implant solutions. Outsourced additive manufacturing or metal dental implant systems is estimated to represent more than $1 billion in opportunity by the year 2024.
