Within dental education, there is a distinct need for hands-on pre-clinical training before a patient’s treatment is carried out for the first time. A combination of extracted teeth and artificial teeth (typodonts) are widely used. However, the availability of extracted teeth is low, and there is a dissatisfaction amongst undergraduate dental students that these artificial teeth do not look and feel like extracted teeth. This project aimed to produce an artificial tooth that looks and feels like an extracted tooth, utilising images collected from X-ray microtomography (XMT) and manufacturing techniques of three-dimensional (3D) printing. As well as to establish differences between extracted and artificial teeth from a haptic point of view. Extracted human teeth were imaged using high-contrast XMT. A method was developed to convert reconstructed XMT images into a 3D printing file format (STL). A technique was also developed to measure the forces imposed on the tooth from a dental handpiece, with forces being measured during the cutting process. Models were 3D printed to high accuracy from the original reconstructed XMT images. From the simulated ‘haptic’ feedback experiment, it was shown that commercially available artificial teeth required more force to cut compared to extracted teeth. The composites that were designed and printed closely resembled this force needed to cut, compared to artificial teeth. These teeth were provided to qualified dentists and undergraduate dental students. Feedback from them showed a promising basis for future development. To conclude, this project has investigated the consensus that dental students are unhappy with current commercially available teeth and has developed a force measuring technique to quantify this difficulty in cutting. Through material development, materials that required a similar cutting force were produced. This project provides the basis for future development in producing more accurate dental simulants for teaching and training
