Medicine is set to become of the most imminent industries to adopt 3D printing technology across multiple different applications. We have been reading about masses of people wearing a 3D printed hearing aids and dentists making new teeth with less effort than ever before.
This latest innovation from the research group in Netherlands shows how this technology can drive a completely new area of patient-specific prosthetics, and ultimately any custom made body parts, into a routine every day medial procedure.
Instead of risky reconstructive surgery, an elderly 83-year-old lady was treated with a custom made lower jaw bone she had partially lost due to a chronic bone infection. The 3D modeling software together with the 3D printing process provided an ideal fit to create a fully customised prosthetic without complex metalwork processes required by traditional methods.
For further medical insights and 3D printing, please check out Dr Atala’s presentation at the TED Conference regarding human kidenys.
