Additive manufacturing of dental ceramics in prosthodontics: The status quo and the future.

Purpose: This review aims to summarize the available technologies, material categories, and prosthodontic applications of additive manufacturing (AM) dental ceramics, evaluate the achievable accuracy and mechanical properties in comparison with current mainstream computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) subtractive manufacturing (SM) methods, and discuss future prospects and directions.

Study selection: This paper is based on the latest reviews, state-of-the-art research, and existing ISO standards on AM technologies and prosthodontic applications of dental ceramics. PubMed, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect were amongst the sources searched for narrative reviews.

Results: Relatively few AM technologies are available and their applications are limited to crowns and fixed partial dentures. Although the accuracy and strength of AM dental ceramics are comparable to those of SM, they have the limitations of relatively inferior curved surface accuracy and low strength reliability. Furthermore, functionally graded additive manufacturing (FGAM), a potential direction for AM, enables the realization of biomimetic structures, such as natural teeth; however, specific studies are currently lacking.

Conclusions: AM dental ceramics are not sufficiently developed for large-scale clinical applications. However, with additional research, it may be possible for AM to replace SM as the mainstream manufacturing technology for ceramic restorations.