REVOLUTIONIZING HEALTHCARE: A REVIEW OF 3D PRINTING IN DENTISTRY AND DRUG DELIVERY

ABHILASHA WAGHADKAR; VIDYA LOHE; SUWARNA DANGORE; MANISHA WAGHADKAR; MUJIBULLAH SHEIKH

doi:10.22159/ajpcr.2025v18i11.54566

Authors

ABHILASHA WAGHADKAR Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology DMIHER (Deemed to be University), Wardha, Maharashtra, India.
VIDYA LOHE Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology DMIHER (Deemed to be University), Wardha, Maharashtra, India.
SUWARNA DANGORE Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology DMIHER (Deemed to be University), Wardha, Maharashtra, India
MANISHA WAGHADKAR Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandrapur, Maharashtra, India
MUJIBULLAH SHEIKH Department of Pharmaceutics, Datta Meghe College of Pharmacy DMIHER (Deemed to be University), Wardha, Maharashtra, India. https://orcid.org/0009-0003-1867-7028

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22159/ajpcr.2025v18i11.54566

Keywords:

Dentistry, Drug delivery, Personalized medicine, Surgical guides, Prosthetics, Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), Stereolithography (SLA), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Digital Light Processing (DLP)

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) printing will revolutionize healthcare by allowing personalized, efficient, and decentralized healthcare solutions. This assessment synthesizes current knowledge on the objectives, support, and limitations of 3D printing in dentistry and medicine distribution. 3D printing makes it easier to manufacture surgical instruments, diagnostic models, crowns, bridges, and bioprinted soft tissues in dentistry. It enables personalized, on demand formulations, such as oral polypills and microneedle array, together with a tunable release profile for drug delivery. Although promising, the field still faces several challenges, including technical obstacles, limited mechanical longevity of dental polymers, scalability issues in bioprinting, insufficient safety data, and the lack of uniform standards. Critics of research on how emerging technologies, such as Al and green components, can overcome existing obstacles, focusing on proposing realistic plans for future integration of 3D printing into global healthcare systems. Examples, such as the high success rates for 3D dental implant production and the Food and Drug Administration-approved 3D-printed drug Spritam, demonstrate the potential of 3D printing. The review also highlights the techn

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

1. Khorsandi D, Fahimipour A, Abasian P, Saber S, Seyedi M, Ghanavati S, et al. 3D and 4D printing in dentistry and maxillofacial surgery: Printing techniques, materials, and applications. Acta Biomater. 2020; 122:26- 49. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2020.12.044

2. Dhull KS. Revolutionary advances: Exploring the applications of 3D printing in dentistry. Acad J Med. 2023;6(1):1-7. doi: 10.62245/ajm. v6.i1.1

3. Mohapatra S, Kar RK, Biswal PK, Bindhani S. Approaches of 3D printing in current drug delivery. Sens Int. 2022;3:100146. doi: 10.1016/j.sintl.2021.100146

4. Sekar L, Seenivasan R, Reddy MV, Varma KD, Ahmed SS, Pachiyappan JK, et al. Advancements in microneedle technology: Comprehensive insights into versatile drug delivery mechanisms. Int J Appl Pharm. 2024;16:1-11. doi: 10.22159/ijap.2024v16i2.49564

5. Wallis M, Al-Dulimi Z, Tan DK, Maniruzzaman M, Nokhodchi A. 3D printing for enhanced drug delivery: Current state-of-the-art and challenges. Drug Dev Ind Pharm. 2020;46(9):1385-401. doi: 10.1080/03639045.2020.1801714, PMID 32715832

6. Oyewumi M. 3D printing technology in pharmaceutical drug delivery: Prospects and challenges. J Biomol Res Ther. 2015;4(4):1-3. doi: 10.4172/2167-7956.1000E141

7. Abedi Diznab F, Ghazi Oskouei H, Dehghan F, Dehghan M, Golrokhian M, Rafighi A, et al. The role of 3D printing in customizing dental prosthetics and orthodontic appliances. Galen Med J. 2024;13(SP1):e3719. doi: 10.31661/gmj.v13iSP1.3719

8. Horst DJ. 3D printing of pharmaceutical drug delivery systems. AOICS. 2018;1(2):1-5. doi: 10.32474/AOICS.2018.01.000109

9. Wickramasinghe N, editor. 3D printing in healthcare. In: Research Anthology on Emerging Technologies and Ethical Implications in Human Enhancement. United States: IGI Global; 2020. p. 220-7. doi: 10.4018/978-1-7998-1371-2.ch016

10. Palucci Rosa R, Rosace G. Nanomaterials for 3D printing of polymers via stereolithography: Concept, technologies, and applications. Macromol Mater Eng. 2021;306(10):2100345. doi: 10.1002/mame.202100345

11. Bagheri A, Jin J. Photopolymerization in 3D printing. ACS Appl Polym Mater. 2019;1(4):593-611. doi: 10.1021/acsapm.8b00165

12. Schmidleithner C, Kalaskar DM. Stereolithography. In: Cvetković D, editor. 3D Printing 2018. London: Intechopen; 2018. doi: 10.5772/ intechopen.78147

13. Xu X, Robles-Martinez P, Madla CM, Joubert F, Goyanes A, Basit AW, et al. Stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing of an antihypertensive Polyprintlet: Case study of an unexpected photopolymer-drug reaction. Addit Manuf. 2020;33:101071. doi: 10.1016/j.addma.2020.101071

14. Chan V, Collens MB, Jeong JH, Park K, Kong H, Bashir R. Directed cell growth and alignment on protein-patterned 3D hydrogels with stereolithography. Virtual Phys Prototyp. 2012;7(3):219-28. doi: 10.1080/17452759.2012.709423

15. Stark BL, Gamboa M, Esparza A, Cavendar-Word TJ, Bermudez D, Carlon L, et al. Materials characterization of stereolithography 3D printed polymer to develop a self-driven microfluidic device for bioanalytical applications. ACS Appl Bio Mater. 2024;7(12):7883-94. doi: 10.1021/acsabm.4c00059, PMID 38776250

16. Deshmane S, Kendre P, Mahajan H, Jain SP. Stereolithography 3D printing technology in pharmaceuticals: A review. Drug Dev Ind Pharm. 2021;47(9):1362-72. doi: 10.1080/03639045.2021.1994990, PMID 34663145

17. FDM. Fused Deposition Modeling. Available from: https://www.3ds. com/make/service/3d-printing-service/fdm-fused-deposition-modeling [Last accessed on 2025 Apr 10].

18. Ahn SJ, Lee H, Cho KJ. 3D printing with a 3D printed digital material filament for programming functional gradients. Nat Commun. 2024;15(1):3605. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-47480-5, PMID 38714684

19. Jeong M, Radomski K, Lopez D, Liu JT, Lee JD, Lee SJ. Materials and applications of 3D printing technology in dentistry: An overview. Dent J (Basel). 2023;12(1):1. doi: 10.3390/dj12010001, PMID 38275676

20. Zhou X, Yu X, You T, Zhao B, Dong L, Huang C, et al. 3D printing-based hydrogel dressings for wound healing. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2024;11(47):e2404580. doi: 10.1002/advs.202404580, PMID 39552255

21. Dhand AP, Davidson MD, Burdick JA. Lithography-based 3D printing of hydrogels. Nat Rev Bioeng. 2025;3(2):108-25. doi: 10.1038/s44222- 024-00251-9, PMID 40678688