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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.
How do they attach muscle/tendons to titanium?
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
Pure Titanium is pretty weak with a Yield of around 20ksi. But the most common type is Grade 5 which when heat treated is good to about 150ksi yield. Most 300 series stainless especially 316 which is pretty much the most inert one is good to about 40ksi. You can get some insane Maraging steels that go to 350ksi. But working with those is a pain. The only times I've used it I had to wire EDM it.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
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!
I'm a mechanical engineer and I have to agree. Material selection is much more complicated than it seems. Let's take a typical aluminum parts I design.
If it is a high strength part machined from a block I'd use AL 7075-T6 since it's very strong and machines well. The T6 is an artificial aging that makes it stronger.
Sheet metal with tight bends 5052-O since other Aluminum will crack. The O means it is annealed so it's soft enough to bend cleanly.
Welded parts I'd use 6061-T6 since it's strong and welds nicely. The only problem is when you weld aluminum you anneal the area around the weld and the strength can drop from 36ksi yield to about 8ksi yield. If you really need the strength you can artificially age the part after you weld it but then the part typically warps and you have to straighten it back.
And once you have your part you have another problem with Aluminum. It's really soft. So it's easy to scratch and you can't get the surface clean because it keeps oxidizing and will rub off and make your hand black. So you can anodize it. There is a regular and a hard coat anodize if the part will be subject to wear.
These are just a few of the material selections you need to make. And this is just aluminum.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
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.
I got a (4 Interesting) so I'll continue.
There are a couple of mechanical properties that you can generalize for a metal regardless of alloy type.
Density is pretty consistent. Aluminum is about .09 lb/in^3, Titanium .16 lb/in^3, and Steels .28 lb/in^3
But the most important one is Young's Modulus. This is basically how stiff a material is so higher is stiffer.
Aluminum is 10 Mpsi
Titanium is 16 Mpsi
Steel is 29 Mpsi
What is really freaky is that the Young's Modulus numbers are almost identical to the in proportion to the densities.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
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.