Generation of 3D Tooth Models Based on Three-dimensional Scanning to Study the Morphology of Permanent Teeth Generación de Modelos de diente 3D Basados en Escaneo Tridimensional para el Estudio Morfológico de Dientes Permanentes

The dental student should have thorough knowledge of the dental morphology and develop adequate manual skill to reproduce any part of the tooth, thus maintaining the perfect correlation with associated structures. Computers are becoming an integral part of dental education and dental practice, especially for the acquisition of information in three dimensions and the production of solid objects from computer models. The aim was to present educational material that would allow the dental student to learn to easily identify the morphologic characteristics of permanent teeth, using new technological tools. In order to do this, healthy permanent teeth were scanning by NextEngineTM 3D Scanner HD using the MultiDrive. A 360° scan in macro range was chosen in each case. The number of scans for this family was 16, due to surface irregularities that require readings from a greater number of angles. Volumes of external structures of the scanned tooth were generated and stored in *.STL files. Virtual models were transferred in to programs used for producing physical prototypes that faithfully reproduce anatomy of interest using ReplicatorG software and MBot Grid II 3D printer. 3D virtual and printed macro models of permanent teeth were obtained. This models allows an excellent visualization of the morphological characteristics of permanent teeth. 3D virtual and printed teeth, derived from real tooth, are intended to be a valuable learning tool that can be used in addition to or instead of extracted teeth and they are anticipated to represent an improvement over plastic teeth.