New 3D-Printing Process Brings Chairside Restorations Within Hours
A team at UT Dallas has developed a rapid-processing method that allows fully 3D-printed zirconia restorations to be delivered the same day. The technology removes the traditional debinding bottleneck, opening the door for stronger, more customized chairside crowns, bridges, and veneers.
Permanent, chairside zirconia restorations may soon become a practical reality thanks to a new three-dimensional (3D)-printing technology developed at the University of Texas (UT) at Dallas. The innovation dramatically accelerates the production of zirconia crowns, bridges, and veneers, bringing same-day permanent restorations within reach while maintaining the material’s well-known strength, durability, and biocompatibility.
Traditional 3D-printed same-day crowns rely on ceramic resins, which fall short of zirconia’s mechanical performance. Although zirconia restorations are widely used, they currently require milling, a process that restricts design complexity and introduces risks of micro-cracks. The primary barrier to chairside 3D-printed zirconia has been the lengthy debinding phase, which typically lasts 20 to 100 hours as resin binders are burned out gradually to avoid internal pressure buildup and cracking.
The UT Dallas team engineered a system that cuts debinding time to under 30 minutes. By combining porous graphite felt, improved heat transfer, and vacuum-assisted gas removal, the process allows polymer burnout to occur rapidly without compromising the structural integrity of the printed object. This unlocks the possibility of printing, debinding, and sintering zirconia restorations in just a few hours, making true same-day permanent crowns feasible.
A recent $550,000 NSF Technology Translation award is supporting commercialization efforts aimed at adapting the method for clinical use. If brought to market, the technology would give clinicians the ability to create highly detailed, fully personalized zirconia restorations chairside with less waste, fewer milling limitations, and faster turnaround. For practices, the workflow promises greater efficiency; for patients, it offers the convenience of receiving a long-lasting permanent restoration in a single visit. Click here to read more.
