[release]
The University of Hasselt (Belgium) announced today that Belgian and Dutch scientists have successfully replacing a lower jaw with a 3D printed model for a 83 year-old woman. According to the researchers, It is the first custom-made implant in the world to replace an entire lower jaw.
The lower jaw of the elderly woman was badly infected and needed to be removed. Considering the age of the patient, a "classical" microsurgical reconstructive surgery takes too long time and can be risky. Therefore a tailor-made implant is the best choice.
Normally it takes a few days to produce a custom implant, but with 3D printing technology it takes only a few hours.
This development is led by Research Institute BIOMED at Hasselt University, in collaboration with surgeons from the Netherlands, including the Orbis Centre in Sittard-Geleen, Xilloc Medical BV, Maastricht and Cam bioceramics BV in Leiden.
The 3D printer prints titanium powder layer by layer, while a computer controlled laser ensures that the correct particles are fused together. Using 3D printing technology, less materials are needed and the production time is much shorter than traditional manufacturing. The mandible was finally given a bioceramic coating compatible with the patient's tissue by BioCeramics in Leiden. The artificial jaw weighs 107 grams, it is only 30 grams heavier than a natural jaw, but the patient can easily get used to it.
The operation was performed in June last year in the hospital in Sittard-Geleen. One day later the lady could start talking and swallowing.
"Computer technology is causing a revolution in medical industry", said professor Jules Poukens from BIOMED. "A traditional surgery takes up to 20 hours, and the patient should definitely stay 2 to 4 weeks in the hospital. But this operation lasted four hours and the woman could go home after four days."
The university expects that such patient-specific implants will be widely used in the future.[/release]
[url]http://www.3ders.org/articles/20120203-83-year-old-woman-got-3d-printed-mandible.html[/url]
And soon there'll be no need for braces!
Get me a steel one!
[IMG]http://www.bcbcmedia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/moonraker-jaws.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE=Robber;34572048]Photo:
[img]http://filesmelt.com/dl/jaws-1328526419.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
I want one.
Aren't 3-D printed objects usually brittle and low quality
it looks like some expensive carbon fibre bike part
[QUOTE=Wilford Brimley;34572097]Aren't 3-D printed objects usually brittle and low quality[/QUOTE]
3D printing is a field, not a specific implementation. You're thinking of the shitty plastic things, this would appear to be titanium.
[QUOTE=Wilford Brimley;34572097]Aren't 3-D printed objects usually brittle and low quality[/QUOTE]
Some 3D printed objects are used industrially.
[QUOTE=Wilford Brimley;34572097]Aren't 3-D printed objects usually brittle and low quality[/QUOTE]
Depends on the machines and the materials they got, you obviously couldn't print that quality jaw yourself with a commercially used machine, but as soon as hospitals approve of this machines I believe they will be available for anyone, atleast in the "first world"
TED had a video about it, link: [url]http://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_harouni_a_primer_on_3d_printing.html[/url]
Could this mean we could produce other body parts at similar speeds? Like, fingers and stuff?
[QUOTE=SirJamster;34572169]Could this mean we could produce other body parts at similar speeds? Like, fingers and stuff?[/QUOTE]
Jaw is just a bone, unlike fingers, fingers are much more complex than jaws.
[QUOTE=Garik;34572223]Jaw is just a bone, unlike fingers, fingers are much more complex than jaws.[/QUOTE]
iirc aren't replacing wrists and fingers impossible at this point because of all the little ball joints in the human hand?
[QUOTE=Robber;34572048]Photo:
[img]http://filesmelt.com/dl/jaws-1328526419.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
It looks amazing.
Soon our entire bodies will be made of steel!
Also, Augmented.
Everytime I hear 3D printer I think of that Fairly Old Parents episode.
Also lucky woman.
[QUOTE=Garik;34572223]Jaw is just a bone, unlike fingers, fingers are much more complex than jaws.[/QUOTE]
Fingers are even easier to replace than a jaw. They're bones as well but there are less tissue connected to them than to a jaw.
Its cool as shit how they printed out metal, and fused it together. Printing out cars might be possible one day, albeit piece by piece.
My jaw is augmented.
I never asked for this.
There, all the obligatory jokes have been made.
Great step forward
[QUOTE=Wilford Brimley;34572097]Aren't 3-D printed objects usually brittle and low quality[/QUOTE]
Not anymore
[QUOTE=Jack Trades;34572919]Fingers are even easier to replace than a jaw. They're bones as well but there are less tissue connected to them than to a jaw.[/QUOTE]
[img]http://thesituationist.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/synapse.jpg[/img]
Forgot something?
Minute by minute , day by day , we get closer to augmentations.
I was going to come here to condemn the expenses and complications of 3d printing but that actually looks kinda neat and would be very difficult to manufacture using any other method
Good on them
[QUOTE=Garik;34573378][img]http://thesituationist.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/synapse.jpg[/img]
Forgot something?[/QUOTE]
There are no brains in fingers.
[QUOTE=joost1120;34573542]There are no brains in fingers.[/QUOTE]
i think he meant nerves
It's gonna be fun seeing all these firms be furious about 3D printers. I find it hilarious how they feel like they are entitled to profit, even if there a cheaper competitors who steal the spotlight.
[QUOTE=Funion;34573588]i think he meant nerves[/QUOTE]That's an issue with virtually any body part, including the madible. Same thing with muscles and such. The point though is the bone itself though, not the nerves or muscles or other such parts.
This is the human mandible:
[thumb]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Mandibule.jpg[/thumb]
And this is the human phalanges:
[thumb]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Carpus2.jpg[/thumb]
The phalanges and metacarpals would be very simple to produce actually, they're just straight up long bones.
[QUOTE=Doctor Zedacon;34573872]The point though is the bone itself though, not the nerves or muscles or other such parts.[/QUOTE]
The problem was that he asked if it was possible to make fingers. Making finger bones should be easy enough.
Recreating entire... limbs(?) is another thing entirely.
Sweet! We're just years away from augmented jaws, carbon fibre fangs.
Soon we will have the first human Predator.
[QUOTE=Garik;34573378][img]http://thesituationist.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/synapse.jpg[/img]
Forgot something?[/QUOTE]
I saw a rather interesting design for a prostethic hand a small while ago. Basically, it had small pressure pads around the wrist area, which were connected to the movements of various digits. Now, the girl it was tailored for was born with all of her arm but the hand, so she still have the muscles she'd normally used to retract and expand her hand, so she pressed down on these plates with those muscles and it would move the fingers the muscles were meant to be connected to. It was a really clever way of getting around this problem of nerves.
Also it seriously looked ike something straight outta Deus Ex. I mean right out, like someone had designed the hand with a recreation in mind.
[QUOTE=borisvdb;34574685]Sweet! We're just years away from augmented jaws, carbon fibre fangs.
Soon we will have the first human Predator.[/QUOTE]
If you want carbon fiber fangs and augmented jaws your tongue's gonna have to come out, buddy. You don't want to bite it off, do you? That already happens way more often than it should with regular bones, with ones with greater crushing power and filed down teeth you'd run a fifty-fifty chance of cutting off your tongue each time you try and say something.
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