4 ms·
>The difficult part is not the manufacturing, but knowing how to do it properly so you don’t harm the patient. And yet I read plenty of horror stories of bad o
by joe_mamba 7mo ago
>The difficult part is not the manufacturing, but knowing how to do it properly so you don’t harm the patient.
And yet I read plenty of horror stories of bad orthodontic results. Ask me how I know.
Went to 3 different orthodontist to fix what a bad orthodontist did to me when I was a kid, and each gave me a completely different treatment plan. I feel like being an orthodontist is just eyeballing and patching your way as you go to an acceptable resolution.
- jmalicki 7mo agoGiven that, shouldn't you be even more concerned about people YOLOing it, if even highly trained orthodontists are regularly screwing this up?
- joe_mamba 7mo agoAbsolutely. I'm sure some high-IQ high-functioning autists like John Carmack or Palmer Luckey could fix their teeth at home with some alligners they 3d printed in their garage better than a sloppy orthodontist, but that obviously doesn't scale to gen-pop.
- jmalicki 7mo agoIt's not even just 3d printing skill, but understanding the physiology of how the bone and teeth will restructure themselves over time to know the right amount of pressure to apply to encourage that remodeling, without so much pressure to cause damage - there is a huge amount of scientific research there! (That I'm sure some orthodontists probably pay more detailed attention to than others). I don't doubt a high-IQ high functioning autist could self-teach this, but there's a ton of background there.