Dental 3D printing is growing fast, but only 15% of dental practices are actually using it. Formlabs Dental's Georgio Haddad joins Dr. Ahmad Al-Hassiny to share the data behind what dentists are really printing, where the technology still falls short, and what it will take for chairside 3D printing to go mainstream.
Georgio has spent eight years at Formlabs working across product, marketing, sales, and partnerships, and brings a rare ground-level view of where the dental 3D printing market actually sits versus where the hype says it is.
In this episode, they cover Formlabs' move to open all Form 4B and Form 4BL dental printers out of the box, what the real utilization data shows about how dentists and labs are printing differently, why models still dominate at around 60% of all prints despite barely being talked about, the honest picture on 3D printed restorations and whether dentists are genuinely placing them, the direct print aligner race and whether it is ready for clinical adoption, and what the unlock for mass 3D printing adoption in dental practices actually looks like.
If you are weighing up a printer purchase or trying to cut through the noise around dental 3D printing, this conversation is a good place to start.
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⏱️ Episode Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:24 - Georgio Haddad and 8 years at Formlabs Dental
01:10 - Formlabs goes fully open - the strategic shift explained
02:46 - Why the previous open material mode did not work
03:47 - 50+ third-party resins now validated on the Form 4B
05:04 - Open systems as a competitive advantage in the lab market
06:06 - Which resin manufacturers have joined the platform
07:33 - Lucitone and Dentsply Sirona validation on the Form 4BL
10:15 - Is an open platform the future of dental 3D printing?
12:04 - Customer psychology and the peace-of-mind factor
13:07 - Lessons from CEREC, TRIOS, and intraoral scanner history
14:17 - Has material innovation in 3D printing plateaued?
16:17 - Direct print aligners - the next big frontier?
19:41 - Are intraoral scanners commoditized?
21:19 - What is left to innovate in 3D printing?
23:38 - Direct print aligners - are they ready for clinical adoption?
25:07 - 3D printing penetration data - 15% of practices, 50%+ of ortho
26:12 - What will unlock mass adoption in dental clinics?
28:17 - Formlabs' edge - the world's largest professional desktop 3D printer manufacturer
32:31 - What are dentists actually printing? The real breakdown
33:44 - Why utilization rate is the most important metric
36:25 - Models dominate at 60%, splints second, restorations at the tail
38:15 - Are 3D printed crowns gaining real clinical acceptance?
41:57 - Historical parallels - implants, zirconia, and e.max skepticism
43:00 - What is coming next from Formlabs Dental?
44:59 - Pod printers - market trend or here to stay?
50:39 - Closing thoughts and where to find Formlabs Dental
🔗 Full written blog:
https://instituteofdigitaldentistry.com/podcast/s04-e10-formlabs-reveals-the-data/
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