A method for 3D printing tantalum-niobium alloy dental implants includes the following steps: adding tantalum powder with a diameter of 10-60 μm and niobium powder with a diameter of 10-60 μm to a mixer in a ratio of Ta:Nb = 5.8-6.2:3.8-4.2, and mixing thoroughly to form a tantalum-niobium alloy dental implant material printing substrate powder; and using the tantalum-niobium alloy dental implant material to prepare the tantalum-niobium alloy dental implant through a laser layer-by-layer selective melting process.
Over the past 20 years, many universities and research institutions have conducted multifaceted research on biomaterials. From a comprehensive analysis of material preparation technology, the traditional metal materials used for dental implants are currently mainly titanium alloys. Currently, the production methods for dental implants on the market mainly involve mass production using traditional lathe, milling, planing, and grinding machine tools. For example, titanium alloy dental implants are prepared by precision cutting titanium rods on a precision lathe. Traditional methods for manufacturing dental implants, while efficient for mass production, offer limited sizes and varieties, failing to meet individual patient needs. Furthermore, traditional methods involve subtractive manufacturing, resulting in significant raw material waste. The production process also generates metal dust and noise pollution, contradicting environmental protection requirements. Moreover, factory production prevents simultaneous fabrication with matching crowns, hindering timely treatment and necessitating multiple trips to hospitals or clinics, wasting valuable time and increasing travel and accommodation costs—a violation of health economics principles.
Therefore, given the current state of dental implant material development and application, it is necessary to provide a novel method for preparing dental implants based on tantalum-niobium alloys to address these technical shortcomings.
1. Utilizing tantalum's excellent biocompatibility and strong corrosion resistance in vivo, tantalum-niobium alloy dental implants and related materials exhibit good biocompatibility and corrosion resistance.
2. The addition of niobium promotes the high-temperature melting process of tantalum alloys.
3. Based on laser layer-by-layer selective melting molding technology, processing using domestically produced 3D printing equipment is beneficial to promoting the development of domestic industry and improving my country's independent research and development capabilities.
4. It provides more choices for the single material varieties in the dental implant market, overcomes the monopoly of foreign products in the Chinese market, reduces the price of dental implants, and reduces dependence on imports.
5. Compared with traditional processing methods, using 3D printing technology and tantalum-niobium alloy dental implant materials to manufacture dental implants can solve the problem of implant size and shape data acquisition in one go, timely 3D printing, precise matching, saving patients' treatment time, saving materials, and reducing environmental pollution.
Tantalum is a transition element, and various literatures have confirmed that tantalum has good biocompatibility and excellent corrosion resistance in human body fluids. As early as the mid-19th century, the biomedical field began using this metal as a material for pacemaker electrodes, nerve repair films, and skull molding plates. Pure tantalum has a high density (16.6 g/cm3), and designing it into medical materials with bio-tissue adhesion is an important way to further utilize tantalum. Therefore, tantalum has greater advantages in supporting tissue repair and reshaping. Studies by Bermuderz et al. have shown that tantalum also exhibits excellent corrosion resistance in strongly acidic environments, with no significant changes in weight or toughness compared to Ti and stainless steel implant materials. After implantation into living tissue, tantalum biomaterials, due to their good durability and corrosion resistance, and the fact that they do not create tissue stress shielding, can provide an effective scaffold template for tissue growth, making them a permanent implantable medical material with good biocompatibility.
