Brooklyn, New York -- Voodoo Manufacturing is making 3-D printed PU dental aligners for the direct to consumer orthodontics.
They are being sold direct-to-consumers by marketing companies. The transparent dental aligner market was opened up in the US by Invisalign in 2014. By 2018 its sales were $2bn. Unlike Invisalign, Voodoo plans to sell to consumers without a dentist's prescription.
Founded in 2015, Voodoo expanded this year with a new wing of Formlab 3D printers and an automated post-processing line. This combination can make over 20,000 flexible and discreet polyurethane aligners each month.
Clear dental aligners generally come in a series of 10 to 50 sets that slip over teeth and move them in stages to straighten positions or close gaps. Each stage takes about two weeks. The patient then uses the next set of aligners until the desired look is achieved.
'We're offering a fully automated digital process to anybody who wants to start an aligner brand,' Voodoo Manufacturing CEO Max Friefel said in a phone interview. 'We also sell directly to dentists and orthodontists. We're really hoping to open the market and level the playing field here.'
This story was written by Catherine Kavanaugh. A longer version appeared in Plastics News
