Digital light processing additive manufacturing of thin dental porcelain veneers

Digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing technology was applied to manufacture thin dental porcelain veneers. The prepared thin dental porcelain veneers showed excellent translucency and appearance. The median and mean particle sizes of the printed glass powders were 10.11 µm and 12.03 µm, respectively, with a unimodal distribution. The green glass compacts were printed layer by layer, with an individual layer thickness of 50 µm. The results showed that, according to the thermal expansion coefficient (TEC) and the thermogravimetry/differential scanning calorimetry (TG/DSC), the debinding procedure of the green glass compacts was annealed at 320 °C for 120 min and 570 °C for 120 min, respectively. The results of the classical sintering kinetics models and SEM examination demonstrated that the glass compacts were sintered at 790 °C for 5 min. The flexural strength and the chemical solubility of the sintered glasses were 132.58 ± 25.83 MPa and 18 μg·cm−2, respectively. Both flexural strength and chemical solubility met ISO 6872 criteria.