Eliners

Advantages

Unlike the braces, the eliners have an aesthetic appearance, they are easy to remove, thanks to which oral care is almost no different from the usual one.

How Eliners Are Made

Eliners can be manufactured in different ways, for example, milling on special machines. Sometimes kapps are made by vacuum thermoforming - this is a technology in which a 120 by 120 mm plate is heated on special equipment, and then applied to a tooth model. Dental rows are removed using an intraoral 3D scanner and printed on a 3D printer.

Technology development

2024: Russia has created a smart material for the rapid creation of products for teeth alignment

On February 26, 2024, Russian researchers from the University of Science and Technology MISIS (NITU MISIS) announced the development of a new heat-sensitive material that can be used to create protective biological coatings for medical use. This, in particular, can be products for orthodontic dentistry (for example, when creating eliners), including for equalizing teeth. Read more here.

2022

A platform has been launched for remote control by doctors over wearing eliners

At the end of September 2022, Align Technology announced the launch of a platform for remote control by doctors over the wearing of Invisalign Virtual Care AI eliners. The manufacturer calls its solution very promising. Read more here.

Deliveries to Russia of the most popular eliners have been stopped. They were chosen by 50% of patients

The supplier of the most popular bite correction systems Invisalign announced the suspension of deliveries of its products to Russia. We are talking about Align Technology, according to the Kommersant newspaper. Read more here.

2019: Leonid Boguslavsky Foundation invests in Zenyum eliner developer

At the end of November 2019, the Leonid Boguslavsky FoundationRTP Global, along with other investors, invested in the Singapore dental startup Zenyum. In general, in the next round of financing, the startup raised $13.6 million, as a result of which the total amount of funds raised by the company reached $16.1 million. Read more here.

2018: Hundreds of companies making 3D printers for eliners

For 2018, some foreign kapp manufacturers are represented on the Russian market, which supply them to Russian clinics. The latter, in turn, make a mark-up for patients, and purchasing materials from foreign companies are expensive - as a result, the cost exceeds several hundred thousand rubles. But there are emerging clinics that own their own production and services to fix the bite, such as Eurokappa. And with this, the cost of eliners is significantly reduced.

"There are currently hundreds of companies that produce 3D printers to make eliners. 3D Systems and Stratasys have become pioneers in this area, "says Vladimir Kantemirov, leading orthodontist at the Eurokappa clinic, to Zdrav.Expert. - Eurokappa uses 3D Systems printers. In the fall of 2019, we plan to update the equipment - to purchase printers from Structo, a very promising company that produces printers in size smaller than 3D Systems, but they are not inferior in print performance and speed. "

2016: Russia's Eurokappa launches capp production in Zelenograd

In 2016, Eurokappa opened its own high-tech laboratory for the production of eliners in Zelenograd. The production is based on 3D Systems printers with print accuracy up to 28 micrometers (0.028 mm).

2008: The emergence of the first companies in Russia working with eliners

Until 2008, 3D modeling, which is used in treatment with eliners, was not used in Russia, since it was still subject to patent rights. But as soon as the technology appeared on the local market, it immediately occupied the niche of the premium segment and was available only to high-income people.

Russian doctors who took internships abroad ordered capps there and treated some of their well-off patients. It was a very expensive process.

Since 2008-2009, the first Italian, Korean and American companies began to appear in Russia, which began to work with eliners. Many closed as the technology continued to be very expensive.

1990: Technology for moving teeth on a digital model, the emergence of the term "eliners"

In the early 1990s, new technologies began to be actively introduced by the English company Essex. She made a gypsum bite model, which was sawed into separate fragments, gypsum teeth were displaced and fixed on wax, after which capps were made in this form.

In 1997, students Zia Christie and Kelsey Wirst came up with the technology of moving teeth on a digital model. In the same year, Invisalign was formed. The patent for this procedure using 3D modeling belonged to her from 1997 to 2008. In honor of Invisalign's innovation, transparent dental capps came to be called "eliners."

After the completion of patent rights, many companies appeared that began to use this technology.

1960s: Thermoforming technology for the manufacture of kapp

In the 1960s, thermoforming technology was first used to make kapp. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, American computer scientist Ivan Sutherland came up with real-time 3D graphics technology and became the progenitor of the idea of ​ ​ 3D modeling.

1940s: Harold Kesling's Dentition Positioner

The eliners take their history in the 1940s, when Dr. Harold Kesling first came up with a rubber dentition positioner as part of the final stage of some types of orthodontic work. These were the early capps. Dr. Kesling's positioners were able to move teeth slightly, and could also be used to fix the dentition after the dentition alignment machine was removed. Dr Kesling predicted that in many cases tooth movement could be done in stages.