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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
How do they attach muscle/tendons to titanium?
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.
Titanium is stronger than most stainless steels and is 2/3 of the density. Also nickle is a component of stainless steel and can cause problems in the body. Titanium is inert in the body.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
Why not? That funny "stainless steel" taste, of course.
Richard Keil called, he wants his teeth back.
Although it is useful in medical instruments (eg: scalpels, handles, etc), and is also used in artificial heart values, the nickel components of certain types of medical/surgical stainless steel are quite reactive within the body.
:)
Some people also naturally have considerable sensitivity to nickel outside the body too. Some people get terrible hives, rashes, and even permanent burns when wearing cheap jewelry (ie: silver plated jewelry which is made of nickel/rhodium alloys). Given such a damaging reaction when exposed to damp skin, having this inside the body could be dangerous.
Good question. Cheers!
She should have had new titanium dentures built into it as well. She could have starred in the next James Bond movie.
Uh.. why not titanium? Does she really need her jaw to be stronger than a Mig jet fighter? Does she really want her jaw to be twice as heavy as a normal jaw so that she walks around like this :0 all the time?
which is totally what she said
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_series
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
pure titanium is as strong as typical steels but has less weight. Steels can be made that are much stronger than titanium.
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.
Titanium is inert in the body.
For now. But I'm sure the medical malpractice attorneys who advertise in between infomercials will find a way to claim otherwise in short time.
Impresos en 3D el fracaso de titanio del implante? Marque cinco cinco cinco, cinco cinco cinco cinco!
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Titanium interacts better with bone and the body tends to tolerate it well (most artificial joints are made of titanium), is lighter that steel, and has superb sintering properties. In fact nanograin titanium oxide (a ceramic) when shaped and sintered is transparent, as light as aluminum, stronger than steel, and far more flexible than either. It is extremely heat resistant and you could in fact build a very impressive engine block out of it... and be able to tune you motor by adjust combustion until your ignition color went blue (indicating complete optimal combustion.)
You could print a very high quality bone replacement and put synthetic bone inside and out to support marrow, a blood supply and attachment points on the outside for muscle and tendon. In fact you could build anchor points for carbon fiber to replace portions of tendon, and the tendon would naturally grow into the fiber over time. With the work being done on 3D printing, Its almost certain that we'll eventually just print up actual replacement organs and tissues from our own stem cells and with a little Extracellular Matrix to make it all grow together, no scars, no complications. We truly live in amazing times!
If I remember the story right, much of the damage he suffered in the cancer treatment was because he had some kind of unusual bleeding problem. That's why he lost his voice; they had to do a tracheotomy to keep him alive. So they probably don't want to do any non essential surgeries.
Roger Ebert lost his jaw because of uncontrollable bleeding from a blood vessel in his jaw that was weakened due to the chemo for the thyroid cancer. It was an unexpected byproduct of the original malady.
He also says he won't undergo any more surgery, so it's unlikely he'll receive one of these jaws.
The man is a national treasure. Any filmmaker who sees their film reviewed by Roger Ebert at this point in his life should consider themselves blessed, even if his review is saying the film sucks. It's a herculean task for him to watch these movies and write reviews.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
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.
Titanium is routinely used for dental implants. A hole is drilled into the jaw, a titanium screw/stud screwed in, and a crown put on top. Titanium is ideal for surgical implants because bone actually grows around it, unlike other metals where bone recedes from them. For some odd reason, titanium is particularly bio-compatible, and doesn't cause any rejection issues like other materials. It's also popular for jewelry for people who are especially sensitive to other metals; it's like gold that way (gold is also hypo-allergenic), but obviously less expensive. A lot of people get rashes from stainless steel.
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.