Quantitative Evaluation of Tissue Surface Adaption of CAD-Designed and 3D Printed Wax Pattern of Maxillary Complete Denture

Objective. To quantitatively evaluate the tissue surface adaption of a maxillary complete denture wax pattern produced by CAD and 3DP. Methods. A standard edentulous maxilla plaster cast model was used, for which a wax pattern of complete denture was designed using CAD software developed in our previous study and printed using a 3D wax printer, while another wax pattern was manufactured by the traditional manual method. The cast model and the two wax patterns were scanned in the 3D scanner as “DataModel,” “DataWaxRP,” and “DataWaxManual.” After setting each wax pattern on the plaster cast, the whole model was scanned for registration. After registration, the deviations of tissue surface between “DataModel” and “DataWaxRP” and between “DataModel” and “DataWaxManual” were measured. The data was analyzed by paired t-test. Results. For both wax patterns produced by the CAD&RP method and the manual method, scanning data of tissue surface and cast surface showed a good fit in the majority. No statistically significant (P > 0.05) difference was observed between the CAD&RP method and the manual method. Conclusions. Wax pattern of maxillary complete denture produced by the CAD&3DP method is comparable with traditional manual method in the adaption to the edentulous cast model.