Dental Tribune Asia Pacific Edition | 01/2019 INTERVIEW 09 Intervoew: “We definotely passed a toppong poont for 3-D pronters” By Brendan Day, DTI Powered by 3D Systems’ proprietary Figure 4 technology, the NextDent 5100 is a high-speed dental 3-D printer designed to save time for both patient and practitioner. Dental Tribune International spoke with Rik Jacobs, dental vice president and general manager at 3D Systems; Sebastiaan Cornelissen, CEO of Cordent and Core3dcentres; and Dr Michael Scherer, an American prosthodontist, about the NextDent 5100 and future trends in dentistry. Is the NextDent 5100 designed spe- cifically with the dental lab in mind, or can it be used in a dental practice as well? Rik Jacobs: Essentially, I designed this product to be used by both labs and clinicians with success. Sebastiaan Cornelissen: We found that the most important thing was to have a system that can incorpo- rate multiple machines and multi- ple materials if necessary. This flexibility was the main feature that we were looking for, and the Next- Dent 5100 delivers this. Dr Michael Scherer: For a clinician like myself, there’s been an embrace of 3-D printing in recent years. How- ever, it’s always been the lower-cost models that have been prioritised. With the multiple materials and extremely fast printing that the NextDent 5100 offers, I think that clinicians can now offer a realistic chairside solution for patients. What are the benefits of the Next- Dent 5100 for dental labs? ing and ongoing support from our outstanding resellers, are the foun- dations of the NextDent 5100. We got a lot of feedback from users of this printer, like Michael and Sebastiaan, and thankfully, our R & D team in San Diego really lis- tened to what they asked for, what the market asked for. I think this is what our company should always do: listen carefully to our custom- ers and deliver what they need and want. Are software updates included? Jacobs: Automatically. As long as the user is connected to the Inter- net, he or she will be able to have the latest updates automatically downloaded to the printer. It’s predicted that, within three to five years, more than 50 per cent of dental labs globally will have an in-house 3-D printer. What, in your opinion, is driving this growth? Jacobs: Well in 2018, we definitely passed a tipping point for 3-D print- ers here at 3D Systems. Thanks to easier registration, certification, improved ease of use, and a range of other factors, it has become much more achievable to integrate a 3-D printer into one’s daily workflow. Scherer: Clinicians are now expecting dental labs to be digital and to have printing capabilities. It’s no longer a case of whether a lab will take your files, but rather if they print themselves or still outsource it. That’s how fast 3-D printing has grown in dentistry. From left to right: Dr Michael Scherer, Rik Jacobs (dental vice president and general manager at 3D Systems) and Sebastiaan Cornelissen (CEO of Cordent and Core3dcentres) with 3D Systems’ NextDent 5100. (Photograph: Brendan Day, DTI) Cornelissen: In the dental lab, you have similar time pressure issues to a dental practice. You need to be able to produce things fast, in multiple colours and often in large quantities. To be frank, these are all easily achievable with this printer. Often, a dentist will send some scans to us so that we can quickly create a smile design for the dentist to print a mock-up of in his or her office. Though we are based in the Netherlands and have clinicians working with us from Germany, the NextDent 5100 allows for this entire procedure to be conducted in less than 2 hours. What has the feedback been since the launch of this printer? What have customers most liked about it? Jacobs: What was important for us, besides what these gentlemen have already mentioned, was that the printer have a high level of accuracy. With ten years of experi- ence in the 3-D dental printing industry, I’ve learnt that a lot of printers work fine in the beginning but lose their accuracy over time. When 3D Systems acquired my company, we decided to make sure that our printer would work with- out issue, day in and day out, for at least three years. Flexibility, speed, accuracy and, ultimately, afford- ability of the machine and the materials—these, along with train- Intervoew: “We ontend to ultomately develop a daoly use oral care product woth a natural substance” By DTI ing natural products that could potentially be used to complement fluoride in dental caries prevention. Although there has been extensive literature suggesting the use of natural products for preventing dental diseases, the vast majority of natural product research studies in dentistry are laboratory-based and have not progressed to clinical usage. I am part of the broad research group called Advanced Materials and Technologies, which is headed by Dr Laurence Walsh. Under this group we had a sub-group focusing on natural products and dental caries – which includes Drs Walsh, Leishman, Bandara and myself. I was the lead researcher of the nat- ural product study, with the group coming together three years ago at the beginning of my PhD pro- gramme. What was the basis of your research concept? We sought to identify an appro- priate natural product. Dark-coloured fruit berries are known to contain a variety of phytochemicals bene- ficial to health. The availability of commercial fruit berry extracts with standardised phytochemical con- centrations offered the possibility of testing these polyphenol-rich extracts against key cariogenic bac- terial virulence properties. We pro- gressed from a series of laboratory studies to a double-blinded ran- domised controlled trial in high caries-risk patients. We have pres- ently completed all these studies and are planning our next clinical trial in a larger cohort of patients. What do you think the most inter- esting results were? The ability of the berry extracts, especially the cranberry extract, to significantly inhibit Streptococcus mutans virulence without affecting bacterial viability was probably the most interesting result. This suggests the possibility of incorporating the cranberry extracts into a daily use oral care product, for example a mouthwash or dentifrice, to reduce cariogenic virulence without affect- ing health-associated bacterial species in dental plaque, an important advan- tage over commonly used synthetic biocides, like chlorhexidine. Do you have further research plans to develop a new oral health prod- uct? The results of our first clinical trial were encouraging. After fur- ther clinical studies, we do intend to ultimately develop a daily use oral care product with a natural substance incorporated into it to protect against dental caries. Watch this space! Members of the research team responsible for the development a new product to help fight dental caries. From left to right, Drs Shaneen Leishman, Nebu Philip and Laurence Walsh. (Photograph: Dr Patricia Wright) The fight against dental caries has produced a number of innovative ways in which patients can protect and improve their oral health. After much interest in a recently published article on a study into the potential use of berry extract to combat decay-causing bacteria, Dental Tribune International spoke with lead researcher Dr Nebu Philip, from the Universit y of Queensland in Australia, to discuss this new discovery in more detail. Dr Nebu, the study sounds very inter- esting. How did the idea for the research topic arise, and who are you working with? We were interested in develop-