Welcome Dr Rick Ferguson

3D Printing for the Dental Industry

If there’s one industry which loves operating at the cutting edge, it’s dentistry. Most dentists adore their gadgets and love using the latest advances in technology to improve their clinical practice and enhance their competitive edge. This doesn’t just mean shiny new surgical instruments – it also means cinema viewing goggles to wear during surgery or new, and high tech appointment booking software. The boundaries are always being pushed as dentists enjoy finding the next big way to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack.

3D printing technology is now beginning to be used in an innovative way to help make implant surgery procedures much more efficient. Implant surgery takes place when patients require an entire tooth or set of teeth, to be surgically implanted into their jaw. This creates a much longer lasting and patient-friendly alternative to more basic measures such as dentures which require some sort of adhesive. It does, however, mean that the dentist must drill into the patient’s jaw to set the implant.

Who is Dr Rick Ferguson?

Rick Ferguson, DMD, DABOI, DICOI, is a pioneer in bringing low-cost 3-D printing to dentistry and developing digital workflows for implant placement/appliance fabrication. For two decades, he has developed and implemented live-patient implant training and hands-on bone grafting courses using guided surgery techniques. He maintains a private practice with his wife, Dr Katherine Ferguson, in Davie, Florida, with an emphasis on dental implants and implant repair.

Dr Ferguson earned his DMD from the University of Florida in 1993. He has adopted several low-cost 3D printers to dentistry and has developed techniques of digital dentistry which are now being used worldwide.

You might be surprised to learn that currently around the world, over 98% of these surgeries are carried out freehand, with the dentist looking at scans and working out by eye where they should place their drill. There is no guarantee that the implants will always be in the right position, which can lead to increased recovery times, longer operations, and in some cases having to abort the surgery and wait for the patient to heal before trying again. This is costly both in terms of time and money for both the patient and the dentist.

Dr Ferguson has been involved in teaching implant dentistry for the last 20 years and has lectured in every major city in the United States as well as internationally in Saudi Arabia, UK, India, Argentina, Taiwan, South Korea, Jamaica, Antigua, China and the Bahamas. These lecture topics have included treatment planning, case selection, simple and complex surgical placement and restoration, advanced bone grafting and bone graft materials, use of Computed Tomography and surgical guides, hygienic maintenance, management of complications and failures. Dr Ferguson has placed and restored over 5000 dental implants and maintains a private practice with his wife Dr Katherine Ferguson in Davie, FL emphasising dental implants and where they also teach a live surgery course. Dr Ferguson has mentored over 100 doctors on all phases of implant dentistry by travelling to their offices to give them and their staff personalised training. This training has included sedation techniques, sterile protocol, patient management etc. Dr Ferguson has been instrumental in implementing implant training programs and hands-on bone grafting courses which have been attended by thousands of dentists.

Fortunately, a growing number of dentists, led by Florida’s Dr Rick Ferguson and his Implant Educators programme, are now using 3D printed bespoke drilling guides. These guides are created to perfectly fit the patient’s mouth, slotting in exactly around their jaw and existing teeth and providing a hole in the right position and at the right angle for the perfect placement of the drill. This is much easier for the dentist – because the guide is created using scans of the patient and calculated for optimum placement, so the dentist can simply slot in a guide and start drilling, greatly reducing the length of time the surgery takes.

For many of us, going to the dentist can be a daunting experience, particularly when we’re expecting surgery. Luckily for us, our dentist surgeries could soon have the reassuring sound of a 3D printer working away on our bespoke guides. Clever uses of the technology, as well as a generation of faster and more accurate 3D printers, are making our lives easier and more comfortable, one print at a time.