Orthodontists em-brace LithaBite material for translucent brackets
Lithoz’s alumina-based ceramic material brings greater efficiency and customization to translucent orthodontic brackets
Teeth straightening has been a human preoccupation for millennia, with archaeologists uncovering mummified bodies dating back over two thousand years with teeth bound in metal bands. Even Egyptian queen Cleopatra is rumored to have worn a rudimentary teeth-straightening device. That said, orthodontia as a field has only really existed for the last few hundred years and has a timeline marked by various innovations, from very uncomfortable looking 18th-century headgear, to proto-braces that consisted of wrapping metal wire round teeth, to the invention of dental adhesives and stainless steel brackets in the 1970s. Since then, orthodontia has continued to evolve, with today’s frontier being shaped by advanced technologies like additive manufacturing, and ceramic AM in particular.
Lithoz, a leader in ceramic SLA 3D printing, has brought to market hardware, software and materials that are enabling orthodontists to offer their patients more efficient and customized solutions. Among them is one of the company’s newest products, LithaBite, an alumina-based material developed for the production of translucent orthodontic brackets.
LithaBite, which contains 99.99% high-purity aluminum oxide, offers a combination of beneficial properties for braces, including high density, high strength and optimal friction. Moreover, users can achieve tolerances of less than 10 µm and a wire slot geometry precision of better than 7 µm – a value that impressed many at IDS 2025, where LithaBite was unveiled. This degree of precision is vital to ensuring that each bracket integrates seamlessly with the patient’s teeth and is performing as needed in combination with the archwire.
In more specific terms, the wire slot is the part of the bracket where the archwire is fed, and the geometry of the wire slot plays an important role in determining the movement of teeth and friction between the wire and bracket. Therefore, having a high level of precision for the wire slot geometry is key to ensuring the performance of the orthodontic devices, translating into shorter treatments and a more comfortable experience for patients.
In combination with Lithoz’s proprietary LCM technology, LithaBite is suitable for the creation of optimized orthodontic brackets that offer greater aesthetic quality — a key priority for braces-wearers. On this front, the material is characterized by an ultra-smooth finish and translucent color, which is far more subtle on the teeth than the traditional metal brackets many of us wore in our youths.
Beyond improved aesthetics for patients, the technical ceramic also offers orthodontic labs many benefits when it comes to efficiency. For one, there is minimal material consumption required when using LithaBone, less than 0.1 gram per bracket, which means that a little material goes a long way. The material also fits into a highly automated digital workflow that facilitates greater customization, so that each 3D printed bracket is optimized in fit for the patient’s mouth. LithaBone is also suitable for the production of different types of brackets, including self-ligating brackets, which use an internal mechanism rather than elastics to apply a specific amount of pressure to the braces’ archwire.
Whereas more conventional bracket production processes involve the use of costly injection molding and milling processes—both of which are conducive to generic bracket designs—3D printing makes it possible to create bespoke brackets without having to start the production workflow from scratch, resulting in a cost of less than $1 per bracket. Moreover, ceramic AM circumvents the costs and time associated with making tooling for injection molding as well as the material waste generated in the milling process.
“With ultra-precise Lithoz LCM ceramic 3D printing technology, translucent ceramic brackets can now be produced at impressively low costs,” says Dr. Daniel Bomze, Director Medical Solutions at Lithoz. “These 3D printed ceramic brackets are perfectly biocompatible, highly durable and live up to the highest aesthetical standards. They seamlessly integrate complex adhesive surfaces to ensure a perfect fit, which makes treatment shorter and less painful. It’s a true win-win situation: limitless variations can be printed in large volumes at no additional cost, with tools as the biggest fixed cost drivers being completely eliminated.”
The new LithaBite material, which was recently presented at IDS 2025, the leading global trade fair for the dental market, fits into Lithoz’s growing portfolio of dental solutions, which includes its CeraFab S65 Medical 3D printer, and materials LithaCon (a zirconia-based ceramic ideal for dental implants), LithaBone HA 400 (a Hydroxyapatite-based bone substitute with bioresorbable properties) and LithaBone HA 480 (a similar ceramic resin with improved wall thickness).
LithaBite complements Lithoz’s existing dental solutions by offering a biocompatible, durable, high-resolution and—importantly—translucent material, ideal for economically producing high-precision and aesthetically subtle brackets that will help improve smiles all over the world.
