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A comment on Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on? by unexaminedlife on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @08:47PM (#22176353)
I've been wanting to disrupt orthodontistry for quite a long time. With the state of 3d scanners, 3d printers, 3d software modeling, why hasn't the market price of orthodontist treatments dropped to cost-of-materials yet? As soon as at least one satisfactory / integrated open-source stack exists I think it's only a matter of time before it does...
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Re:Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on? by asiachick on Wednesday January 29, 2020 @01:40AM (#22178054)
I don't know if this is what you mean but in Japan many dentists have machines to make tooth crowns. Not sure how common that is in the west. I went to a dentist in SF, they did something and then I had to come back in 2 weeks after they made the crown. Been to several dentists in Japan where they could make the crown while you wait 20-30 mins
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Re:Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on? by Ry4N4ejc-9K_ZfQ on Wednesday January 29, 2020 @10:53AM (#22181839)
They do happen in the west as well. It is faster/cheaper to print crowns/etc, but I don't believe it's generally on par with an expert Dental Technician yet.
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Re:Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on? by lucretian on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @09:27PM (#22176611)
a dentist's expertise is hard to displace. not everyone can be bob mortimer...
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Re:Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on? by tmamic on Wednesday January 29, 2020 @10:01AM (#22181214)
The cost of material is only smaller part of the price. High price has more to do with the imbalance between the supply and demand. Supply growth is limited by the number of orthodontists. This is due to the fact that every orthodontic treatment requires human expert to oversee and manage it. SmileDirectClub is trying to disprove this last assumption, and we still have to see if they manage it.
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Re:Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on? by ninjinxo on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @10:34PM (#22177078)
It's already well underway:

https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/3d-printing-impact-on-de...

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Re:Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on? by exikyut on Wednesday January 29, 2020 @12:07AM (#22177631)
Stack not especially necessary. From 2016: http://amosdudley.com/weblog/Ortho
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