3D Printing of stereolithographic models with open protocol

A descriptive and exploratory study was carried out with the aim of proposing and validating an open protocol for making 3D impressions of stereolithographic models, which is available to professionals in the area of Dentistry. Nine operators (senior students of the Dentistry degree), without previous experience in the use of software and hardware for 3D printing, divided into two groups were trained through theoretical and practical sessions. The A worked with three helical tomographies (TAC) and the B with three cone beam computed tomography (CBCT), all in DICOM format, converted to STL files. In total, 99 bone structures corresponding to 33 jaws, 33 axis and 33 facial masses-skull bases were analyzed, and a total of 33 jaws were printed in PLA (polylactic acid filament). At the end of the study, no statistically significant difference was found in the implementation of the proposed protocol between the operators, the measurements of the pieces printed by each of them, the gold standard, the TAC and the CBCT, with which not only validated the protocol, but it was possible to determine the resources necessary to carry out this type of 3D printing. (author)