Surgical Template Fabrication Using Cost-Effective 3D Printers.

PURPOSE: This in vitro study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of surgical templates fabricated using three different 3D printing technologies.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten identical surgical templates were printed using four 3D printers (two of an identical make and model). Each of the surgical templates was scanned by a reference scanner and then imported into the inspection software. Inspection software utilized a best-fit alignment to automatically calculate the 3D variation at all points.

RESULTS: Statistically significant differences were found among the three groups (χ2 [2] = 12.880, P = .0016). Mean 3D deviation was also significantly different between the two printers of an identical make and model (χ2 [1] = 8.251, P = .0041).

CONCLUSION: All of the tested printers had a high level of accuracy in the fabrication of surgical templates, which would justify the trial of cost-effective printers for clinical fabrication of surgical implant templates.