This 22-year-old engineer 3D prints dentures to give low-income Americans their smiles back | CNN

At just 22, Connor Gibson is doing something he never dreamed possible: using his engineering skills to 3D print dentures for America’s most vulnerable people — and giving them back their sense of dignity in the process. “Never, ever, in school did they say, ‘You can design something that could change someone’s life like a denture,’” Gibson told CNN. “It’s not something immediately on someone’s mind when they’re thinking, ‘Oh, I’m going into engineering.’” Gibson is the dental technology manager at Remote Area Medical, also known as RAM, a large nonprofit organization based out of Rockford, Tennessee, that provides free dental, vision and medical care through volunteer-powered mobile clinics across the United States. He first began as a volunteer at the nonprofit while attending a local community college. He was instantly inspired by the organization’s mission to help the nation’s poor and was determined to figure out a way to improve the speed at which dentures could be delivered. He knew nothing about dentistry or 3D printing. “Honestly, if you told me three years ago, this is what I would be doing, I would have called you crazy,” he said. Gi

Jun 22, 2026 → Jun 22, 2026