Over the past 25 years, patients have increasingly demanded cosmetic dental treatments that not only transform their smiles, but also preserve and maintain as much of their natural tooth structure as possible. Fortunately, thanks to the continued advancement of materials and technology, dentists and their laboratory partners can provide beautiful, durable restorations that require little to no tooth preparation, using only ultra-thin, no-prep veneers.
In addition, technological innovations, combined with shifts in practice and laboratory dynamics, have expanded the range of potential restorative considerations and cosmetic treatment options for patients, whether they are definitive solutions or long-term, effective, temporary replacements.
In particular, CAD/CAM devices, intraoral scanners, and new materials that enable additive manufacturing (i.e., 3D printing) of a wide range of restorations, including veneers, have enabled cost-effective workflows that ultimately result in more timely, affordable treatment for patients.
These technologies, materials, and the digital collaboration they enable enable dentists and laboratories to avoid problematic, error-prone, and inefficient procedures, thereby improving treatment accuracy and process efficiency.
For some no-prep veneer cases, dentists may choose to design the restoration themselves and then have it milled or 3D printed in the office. Alternatively, when the case is more complex (e.g., requiring detailed aesthetic details and anatomical features), dentists may work with the laboratory to design and fabricate the restoration, or simply design it and then send the restoration file back to the office for milling or printing.
In recent years, a variety of polymer/ceramic materials have been introduced for chairside and laboratory fabrication of veneer restorations. One of these is the recently introduced 3D printable ceramic nano-hybrid resin (Rodin EnVision [Pac-Dent]), designed for cosmetic veneer indications, including single-unit and multi-unit, thin, and/or no-prep veneers.
Biocompatible and Class II compliant, the light-cured Rodin EnVision ceramic nano-hybrid resin represents the latest advancement in glass-ceramic science to maximize the benefits of advanced 3D printing technology.
Specifically, Rodin EnVision combines methyl methacrylate resin, ceramic, photoinitiator and inhibitor, and pigment through controlled crystallization. As a result, the material has improved strength, durability, and aesthetics compared to previously available machinable or 3D-printed veneer materials. These crystalline phases also contribute to the optical properties, enabling precise shade matching between printed restorations and the underlying natural tooth structure and/or adjacent natural teeth, as well as the material’s excellent post-processing translucency and gloss.
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