NextDent Resins for Dentistry: A Practical Review

NextDent is a portfolio of dental 3D printing resins and hardware developed by NextDent B.V. in Soesterberg, Netherlands, and now operated under 3D Systems following a 2017 acquisition. For dental labs and clinics evaluating in-house printing, it’s one of the more mature options on the market — with a broad material library, documented biocompatibility, and a hardware ecosystem built around its own DLP printer. Whether it’s the right fit depends heavily on your case mix and workflow.

What NextDent Actually Offers

When 3D Systems acquired NextDent in January 2017 for approximately $37.6 million (per the SEC Form 8-K filing), the brand already had 12 dental resins cleared in over 70 countries. Since then, 3D Systems expanded the line to 30 materials. That breadth is one of NextDent’s genuine strengths: a single vendor relationship can cover denture bases, crowns and bridges, surgical guides, orthodontic splints, and diagnostic models.

Key materials include:

• NextDent Denture 3D — a Class IIa resin for denture bases, intended for long-term biological contact
• NextDent C&B MFH (Micro Filled Hybrid) Bleach — a crown, bridge, and inlay material with tooth-whitening aesthetics and strong fit characteristics
• NextDent Denture 3D+ — composed primarily of ethoxylated bisphenol A dimethacrylate (≥75%), with silicon dioxide and titanium dioxide; post-processing requires 45 minutes in the NextDent LC-3DPrint Box

That last detail matters practically. Post-processing discipline is not optional. Cutting the cycle short compromises biocompatibility and mechanical properties — something smaller labs running high volume sometimes underestimate.

The Hardware: 5100 vs. 300

NextDent 5100

The 5100 uses 3D Systems’ Figure 4 DLP technology with a non-contact membrane, printing at 50 µm layer thickness, 65 µm resolution, and a 405 nm UV wavelength. Vendor-reported print times run 10–40 minutes depending on the part, compared to two to four hours cited for some competing systems — though real-world throughput depends on orientation, support strategy, and post-processing setup.

It integrates with intraoral scanning and design software to support end-to-end digital workflows. Amann Girrbach incorporated the 5100 into its Ceramill workflow, which tells you something about where it sits in the ecosystem: it’s designed for labs that are already working digitally, not as an entry point for practices printing their first model. Pairing it with a quality best intraoral scanner upstream matters — scan quality directly affects print accuracy.

NextDent 300 MultiJet

The 300 is a MultiJet printer with two print heads, each with two channels, allowing multiple materials to be loaded and blended in a single job. It’s specifically positioned for denture production. According to 3D Systems, the printer enables rapid output of fully polymerized, patient-tailored dentures. It’s manufactured in South Carolina, with European and Asian market releases pending regional regulatory clearances — a timing constraint worth confirming directly with the manufacturer if you’re outside the US.

Regulatory Standing

3D Systems received FDA 510(k) clearance for its multi-material monolithic jetted denture solution — combining NextDent Jet Denture Teeth and NextDent Jet Denture Base — described at the time as a first-to-market offering for one-piece printed dentures, per Dentistry Today. NextDent Base is classified as an FDA Class II device under 21 CFR 872.3760.

That said, FDA clearance status varies by material. Labs should check the specific indication and clearance for each resin before clinical use rather than assuming portfolio-wide approval.

What the Research Shows

Two peer-reviewed studies published in 2024 offer a useful, independent perspective. Work published in European Journal of Oral Sciences analyzed NextDent Crown & Bridge alongside competing materials for mutagenicity, cytotoxicity, and carcinogenicity. NextDent showed reduced binding affinity to esterases — meaning better resistance to enzymatic degradation — and a favorable toxicity profile relative to the comparators tested.

A separate study in International Journal of Biomaterials found that NextDent resin met ISO 20795-1-2013 thresholds for sorption and solubility, with flexural strength exceeding the 50 MPa minimum required under ISO 10477. The nuance: degree of conversion was slightly lower and water sorption slightly higher than heat-processed counterparts. For most prosthetic applications this is clinically acceptable, but it’s worth factoring into material selection for high-stress cases.

Where NextDent Fits in a Digital Workflow

The digital dentistry ecosystem increasingly expects interoperability, and NextDent’s integration story is reasonably solid. The 5100 works with mainstream scan-to-design pipelines, and the material library covers the range of indications most labs and larger group practices encounter daily — including digital dentures and guided implant surgery templates.

For a high-volume lab that wants a single certified ecosystem — printer, resins, post-processing unit, and workflow software — NextDent’s breadth is hard to match. For a single-chair practice printing only models and the occasional nightguard, the 5100’s price point and workflow overhead may exceed what the volume justifies. Open-resin printers from other vendors with a narrower material set might be a better fit there.

The strongest case for NextDent is a mid-to-large dental lab producing a mix of prosthetics, surgical guides, and models, where regulatory documentation, material consistency, and a certified ecosystem carry real weight.