Maxwell AFB: 3D printing and digital workflows bring complex dental treatments back into the clinic

Dental care for service members is more than a routine check-up: for U.S. Air Force readiness, treatments often have to be completed on short notice so that acute problems don’t prevent deployment. At Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, the Maxwell Medical Group is therefore rebuilding its oral-surgery capabilities and relying more heavily on digital dentistry, including in-house 3D printing in its own lab.

Specifically, procedures that were recently often referred to external practices are to be performed on site again.

“They’ve been referring out a lot of procedures: root canals, implants, wisdom teeth,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Thomas Hardison, Maxwell Medical Group comprehensive dentist. “And so being here and having the training to do those procedures brought a lot of care back in-house.”

Alongside recently reactivated sedation capability, Hardison also cites implant placements as well as augmentative measures such as sinus lifts and ridge augmentation as the target scope.

Technically, the unit is implementing an end-to-end digital workflow. Hardison describes the process: scans replace conventional impressions; from these, digital models are created, which are then printed and used for subsequent fabrication.

“When patients are deploying, we ensure that they are ready to go. If they do have things that are limiting them from going, we will stop what we’re doing to get them out the door,” said U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Ernessie Ladouceur, Maxwell Medical Group dental flight chief.

“We’ll do implants, sinus lifts, ridge augmentation, and other periodontal surgeries,” said Hardison.

“We have two 3D printers up and running now,” said Hardison. “We do most everything digitally now. So, we scan everything, 3D print models, and mill restorations.”

In practice, this means fewer manual intermediate steps, reproducible geometries for aligners/splints, models, and prosthetic pre-work, as well as faster iteration when adjustments are needed. For deployment operations, what matters above all is speed and availability.

“I think the impact is the continuity of care. More patients are being able to have their care here with us and not seeing a provider off base,” said Ladouceur. “It’s one less thing they have to worry about.”

“The unit’s overall mission is to make sure that our active-duty members are able to be fit and ready,” said Ladouceur. “So that way when they’re out there, they’re not having to worry about something like a toothache.”

This means 3D printing is not being used here as a showpiece, but as a building block to stabilize clinical workflows for deployment-adjacent requirements.