Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the trueness and precision of three dimensional (3D) printed maxillary arch models obtained by fused deposition modelling (FDM) based on CBCT scan data.
Materials and Methods: A human skull was scanned by cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) to obtain the Standard Tessellation Language (STL) file of maxillary bone, then three maxillary models were printed by FDM technique. For dimensional accuracy assessment, nine linear measurements were selected and measured using digital caliper on both the skull and the printed models. The recorded measurements were compared to their corresponding measurements on skull (trueness assessment), and the measurements in each one of the 3 models were compared together (precision assessment), then data were statistically analysed.
Results: In trueness assessment, FDM printed models shows no statistically significant differences in overall dimensions, the recorded mean absolute difference was 0.05 mm, and the mean relative difference was 0.15%. However, regarding the precision, the results revealed a significant difference in the overall dimensional error in the 3 models compared to each other.
Conclusions: FDM constructed maxillary models had minimal dimensional error, which was statistically and clinically insignificant, hence they can be used safely in the dental clinical with comparable accuracy to the models produced by more expensive 3D printing techniques.