Orthos Impress startup: invisible and painless smile correction

Industrial 3D printing simplifies production in many industries, such as construction, architecture, engineering, aerospace, design, and even medicine. This article is about how Infomir 3D Printing helped Orthos Impress, a Ukrainian startup.

About Orthos

Orthos dental clinics provide invisible teeth alignment services. It’s a specialized medical practice that encompasses modern technologies. Firstly, patients visit an orthodontist to undergo a 3D jaw scan. This helps ensure the most successful treatment. Next, using dental scans, doctors manufacture corrective aligners in the form of transparent plastic mouthguards. Finally, patients receive their aligners via mail or in-person and then wear them for 22 hours daily.

Doctors monitor treatment remotely, but patients can visit their orthodontist if needed. The treatment period is 4 to 15 months, which is 2–3 times faster than with braces, while the smile correction process is absolutely painless.

How the startup began

The founder of Orthos is Taras Semeniuk, an orthodontist. The doctor sold an escape room he started when he was a student to open his first clinic. He also borrowed money from his parents, other doctors, and a state loan program. Taras Semeniuk used this startup capital to open the first Orthos clinic in 2017.

The startup has scaled by 2022. Orthos clinics emerged in four cities: Kyiv, Khmelnytskyi, Lviv, and Dnipro. At the same time, people from across Ukraine could use its services via remote consultations and having their teeth aligners mailed to them.

3D printing use case

Upon signing a contract with the patient, the clinic needs to make between 30 and 60 unique models of polyurethane aligners. The lead time is 21 days. Each mouthguard requires a physical model of the jaw. These products must be as accurate as possible because the treatment effectiveness depends on it.

To create the required number of accurate aligner models on time, the clinic uses the HP Jet Fusion 5210 industrial 3D printing line at Infomir 3D Printing. The technology allows for creating products with a minimum layer thickness of 80 microns and a resolution of 1,200 DPI, ensuring maximum accuracy.

A biocompatible HP PA 12 polyamide is used to print models for aligners. Its properties provide durability and resistance to moisture, ultraviolet light, and chemical agents.

Taras Semeniuk, the founder of Orthos clinic:

We need jaw models to manufacture aligners. We printed so many of them and quickly reached the point where it went beyond our capacity. So we turned to Infomir 3D Printing for help, and we can now manufacture comfortable and effective aligners using their high-precision printing.

Infomir 3D Printing manufactures 300–400 unique jaw models for Orthos each week, while our printer can print 350 models per day.

Orthos clinics are already partnering with Impress, a multimillion-dollar Spanish startup. Orthos Impress plans to open a major dental clinic in Kyiv in 2022, along with branches in Odesa, Kharkiv, Vinnytsia, and Zaporizhzhia.