“3D printing is having a transformative impact on the way surgery and dentistry is performed, and how prosthetics and implants are designed, allowing the creation of custom, personalized items fit for the patient or the particular task at hand.”
Why this is important: The article explores the applications of 3D printing in healthcare, emphasizing its transformative impact on surgery, dentistry, prosthetics, and organ transplants. It provides a historical overview of 3D printing methods, from stereolithography to modern techniques like fused deposition modeling (FDM). The versatility of 3D printing is highlighted, with over 18 methods and various modifications available for manufacturing custom products in different materials.
In healthcare, 3D printing is used for surgical aids, training models, specialized instruments, and prosthetics. The technology allows iterative changes based on immediate feedback, leading to the production of patient-specific training models for surgeons. The article also addresses issues with traditional prosthetics and how 3D printing enables the creation of more comfortable and customizable prosthetics, even offering examples of companies like Openbionics producing custom designs.
There have been further breakthroughs in 3D-printed organs, where biomaterials are used to create implantable scaffolds, tissues, and organs. Various bioinks containing living cells are employed, making 3D-printed organs more biocompatible. The technology is still in its early stages, with methods like cell seeding being one of the broadly employed approaches. Customized 3D-printed organs offer advantages in terms of biocompatibility, shape, and size, tailoring the organs to best suit individual patients. --- Shane P. Riley
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