About Us

The inception of our roots was in June 2012 when our founder Dr. Digant Thakkar conceptualized an idea of making inhouse aligners after he attended aligner certification course under the mentorship of Dr. Nikhilesh Vaid.

With Dr. Nikhilesh Vaid

We started exploring 3D printing and scanning technology in general. After reviewing various systems, we bought our first Orthodontic software for aligners and desktop 3D scanner for Orthodontic Models in mid 2014. Trials then started by outsourcing 3D printing of dental casts. Though initial days were not promising, and path of learning was not smooth but giving up was never in the books. While improving the skills of making aligners we also realized that there is more to digital orthodontics than just aligners. Digital indirect bonding grabbed our attention and efforts to study it in detail started in around early 2016.Till date technology was sparsely available in India hence learning was done via reading articles in International journals and understanding the concept of 3D printing from friends studying Engineering . By 2017 we started trials by vacuum forming indirect bonding trays. To make things easy we thought of directly printing Indirect bonding trays which seemed like a fantasy then, but who knew it will be a reality soon. In 2018 we got some Softwares specifically for direct printing of Indirect Bonding trays and got our first in house Desktop 3D printer. Learning to print “In house” was challenging and “trial and errors” was our only guide.

when Dr. Abhisek Ghosh Visited Our Facility in Rajkot

It was during those days that Dr. Abhisek Ghosh a well-known and leading Orthodontist from Kolkata was a great source of inspiration and motivation for Dr. Digant Thakkar. He is a friend, philosopher and guide in true sense. Dr. Ghosh was the first orthodontist with whom we discussed our 3D orthodontic development and he made us realize we were working on something exceptional. In the coming days Dr. Ghosh and Dr. Thakkar worked together to develop “AD Plates for MARPE appliance”. While our direct printing of indirect bonding trays was showing success at much faster pace than aligners, it was the development of MARPE with Dr. Ghosh that was catching interest. While the economic aspect of AD plates was gaining attention pan India, attaching these plates to hyrax expander to convert it to MARPE was very technique sensitive and had its operator-based failures leading to mixed success results. Dr. Prerna Thakkar better half of Dr. Digant is a Pediatric Dentist. Kids would break a lot of space maintainers in their practice. To improve the success of MARPE and space maintainers metal 3D printing came in our radar of interest. Digital Orthodontic Retainers was an enigma for us. By May 2019 we were successful in 3D milling our first Digital Retainer and within a month we could also successfully make our first metal printed space maintainer and digital retainer. To meet the increasing demand of inhouse 3D printing of aligner models and indirect bonding trays in August 2019 we got 2 more inhouse Desktop 3D printer and took a big leap into digital dentistry by installing 3shape Trios 3 intraoral scanner in October 2019.

Trios 3 Intra oral scanner

 

3D Printers

The journey has been exciting ever since. Dr. Ghosh acknowledged our success pan India in his circle of Orthodontists and that is when everyone started recognizing our hard work. Dr. Nikhilesh Vaid and Dr. Abhisek Ghosh encouraged and motivated Dr. Digant Thakkar to start making appliances for other Orthodontists and Dr. Nikhilesh Vaid is first orthodontist in India to use palatal expanders made by us. That’s how we got the confidence to start our commercial venture. Meanwhile trials of MARPE had its own hiccups but eventually we used it successfully and Dr. Digant presented his work on metal 3D printed appliances for first time in National Orthodontic Conference Bhubneshwar November 2019.  The name Digant’s 3D orthodontics was christened in 2020 because everyone used to complement Dr. Digant with words like “your 3D orthodontics work……” . In one of Ormcos Insigna Education programme Dr. Srinivasan Vaz Orthodontist from Australia and KOL for Ormco complemented Dr. Digant by saying “Digital is in your name !!!”

with Dr Vaz From Australin during insignia education programme

“Mistakes have been a great learning tool for me personally I would never stop making mistakes , any idea however naïve it may sound I would not dismiss it without giving it a shot. That is the reason today we are the first and only Orthodontic lab in India manufacturing Digital Orthodontic appliances like palatal expanders, MARPE , space mainters, retainers , distalizers and many more yet to add. Learning is a never ending process and if you have a suggestion or an idea about Digital Orthodontic appliance or how we can improve our services we would be more than happy to make it a reality !!”

-Digant Thakkar

Feel free to get in touch with us [email protected]