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83-Year-Old Woman Gets New 3D-Printed Titanium Jaw
arnodf writes "The University of Hasselt (in Belgium) announced today (Google translation of Dutch original) that Belgian and Dutch scientists have successfully replaced an 83-year-old woman's lower jaw with a 3D-printed model. According to the researchers, 'It is the first custom-made implant in the world to replace an entire lower jaw. ... 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 artificial jaw is slightly heavier than a natural jaw, but the patient can easily get used to it."
You wouldn't download a jaw...
She can get a job as a heavy at Drax Industries.
I'm going to be reading how someone using a 3D printer is creating their own family.
oooooh and is the Pope going to have kittens!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
already saw that Bond movie.
How do they attach muscle/tendons to titanium?
Not just in this case, but in general for medical implants. Sure it is heavier, but it is much stronger, just as corrosion resistant, and non-magnetic.
Grandma is so proud of her grandson up on the International space station. Or was it a privately owned station? I forget. It's been longer since I've seen that than some of the people on Slashdot have been alive. Shit. Just 2.5 hours to happy hour...
If she wore out her old jaw nagging her old man, how many nags will it take to wear out a titanium one!
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
Sounds like the whole thing is a jaw-dropping experience!
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I wonder if this could have been used for Roger Ebert, or did he have to have too much tissue removed to get rid of the tumor to make it pointless?
Richard Keil called, he wants his teeth back.
She should have had new titanium dentures built into it as well. She could have starred in the next James Bond movie.
How long before they can print Adamantium bone replacements?
pure titanium is as strong as typical steels but has less weight. Steels can be made that are much stronger than titanium.
Baron Von Underbite's Mom?...
Or maybe the Baron was in drag all along?
Should I be worried?
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
I was under the impression that 3D printing currently only worked with a few materials, and usually was just used with plastics. But 3D printing with metal? Welcome to the future.
replacements for jaws are decades old (though not 3D model), I used to work in IT for dental practice network and replacements for war veterans who had them destroyed is something I remember.
Yes I would download a car!
Baroness Von Underbite
How much is the printer, and what do the cartridges cost?
In TFA, the novelty they are alluding to is this is the first 3D printed replacement, not the first replacement.
TFA mentions that compared to the current method, they can have a replacement in 4 hours, compared to several or more days.
I can imagine that this can allow the surgeon to tweak the model for the individual patient better.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Any way I could get this, for say, all my bones? Some retractable claws would be nice too ...
Quick! Somebody get Eric Lindros on the line. There might finally be a cure for his glass jaw.
When inevitably (hopefully many, many years from now) this woman will pass away, will the titanium be recycled?
The company shapeways.com will print print stainless steel for you for relatively cheap. (They do plastic, stainless steel, aluminum, sterling silver, ceramic, and glass.) I have the world's most awesome set of dungeon-crawling dice (bronze-finish stainless) that my wife gave me from that place.
No comment on the wight at all?
That's true because it's not going to be 100% solid, but you can get to within 90% or more with laser sintering. However for this application being a little bit porous is an advantage because real bone can grow on it and into it. A bit over a decade ago researchers were treating milled titanium knee joints with hot caustic soda to make the surface porous and let bone grow into the portions that were in contact with bone.
Building a jaw like this is pretty damn close to a replicator: take the raw material and make something new from it.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
That's almost fast enough that they could request a change to the part during surgery. OK, maybe off by a factor of 4 to 10.
3D printing is going to revolutionize the world. We are in a Moore's law-esque curve with the cost and capabilities of printers. They have already moved into the price range of a home computer (maker bot) and will soon sport the capability to print in combinations of varying arrays of materials. We're very quickly going to move from machines printing with one or two materials, largely either metal or plastic, into combinations of dozens, and then hundreds of materials. As we go, we'll also see the printing of biological devices (ie printing cells to scaffolding). Combined with research into stem cells and regenerative medicine, I expect the next 20 years to see a simultaneous,. interconnected revolution in manufacturing and biotechnology.
I just hope I live long enough to take advantage. Just as I get to the age where my organs start to fail, I want science to deliver customized printable organs.
that i myself dont really need much stuff 3d printed.
i need to pay rent, pay for food, and pay for transportation, and heat/cooling.
3d printing really doesnt help me do any of these things. i cannot 3d print food. i cannot 3d print land. i cannot 3d print fuel or energy.
it will revolutionize a lot of things, but what will it do to the economy? even more unemployment, even less chance for anyone to move up the social ladder and rise out of subsitence poverty and wage slavery.
I bet she can really take a punch now!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
its not the printer, its the ink is where they stick it to ya :)
For a titanium PENIS! The womens would go CRAZY over it.
I, for one, welcome our Titanium-jawed Belgian grandmother overlords!
Defining Statistics and Social Research
Wonder if the user feels any discomfort when it rains or snows? How about the possibility of attracting lightning?
What the hell. A lower jaw made from titanium and no photo? Is this some sort of medical privacy thing? I want to see photos of a titanium lower jaw.
Pet peeve of mine. Many times when I click on an article I want to see a picture. Pics or it didn't happen. I expected to see what the printed jaw looks like, the machine that made it, or the woman who received it. Or hell, even the researchers that created it. But instead we get this.
Can't we get articles posted closer to the original source instead of these crap repeater sites?
Mom, is that you?
You think 3D printing in titanium is crazy -- check out the work of researchers Atala and Forgacs, who are using what's effectively a dot-matrix printer to spew "bio-ink" onto "bio-paper". The bio ink is a mixture of a patient's stem cells and the paper is a collagen lattice that degrades over time, allowing the ink to grow through it. By printing 2D images on a stack of paper, these 2D images combine to form a 3D shape. They're talking about printing organs -- like bioprinting a heart. Sweet.
GeekDad, TED speaker, Wipeout loser, author of Brain Trust