Mechanical Properties of 3D Printed Orthodontic Aligners Produced by Different Commercially Available Printers - An In-Vitro Study

The aim of this study was to compare the mechanical properties of orthodontic aligners among different commercially available 3D printing devices. Three different 3D printers were included in this study (Formlabs Form 2 3D printer; Moonray S100 printer (Sprintray, Los Angeles, CA, USA); Eden500V Stratasys 3D Printers were used to prepare orthodontic aligners with dental. The central incisors of each aligner were cut, prepared, and evaluated in terms of Martens-Hardness (HM), indentation-modulus (E-IT), and elastic-index (eta(IT)) as per ISO14577-1:2002. Post hoc pairwise comparisons indicated no significant difference in Martens-Hardness (HM), indentation-modulus (E-IT), and elastic-index (eta(IT)) properties in any group. Under the limitations of this study, it may be concluded that the mechanical properties of 3D-printed orthodontic aligners are dependent on the 3D printer used, and thus, differences in their clinical efficacy are anticipated.