Print a New Hip While-U-Wait
In April, we had a great article that talked about “Printing in the Third Dimension“, a new technology that is gaining ground in architectural companies and other fields that have a need to make a 3-D object immediately– like a prototype or mold. In this post, we want to focus on some of the groundbreaking ways three dimensional printing is transforming the medical field.
Implants, Orthopedics, Maxillo-Facial
3D Ventures, a company based out of Lubbock, TX, has been helping hospitals in the operating room. By sending a MRI/CT scan to their office, they can quickly print out a medical model or send a 3D print to the hospital.
“3D Printing medical models is rapidly taking hold. Take a jawbone reconstruction surgery for example. A patient’s MRI is taken and 3D printed into a 3D medical model, a plate is created with a perfect fit before O.R. reducing time in O.R. by 45 minutes!” (from the website)
This technology has been beneficial to orthopedics, implants and plastic surgery. Imagine being able to easily customize a hip joint to your body so that you can more easily get through your physical therapy. Car accident? 3D Ventures can quickly print a metal replacement for your crushed skull using a special metal powder that fuses to itself.
>> Read more about the exciting work being done by 3D Ventures
Printing Skin Tissue
Another use in the medical field is printing skin tissue. Yes, you read that correctly, and it turns out that it isn’t all that hard to do.
Normally, a hospital would take some healthy skin cells, grow them and then put them close to other skin cells to quickly create a patch of skin. The only drawback is that the resulting skin isn’t very thick due to the lack of blood vessels and pores. No blood vessels means that blood can’t get to the deeper cells.
“But creating intricate solid structures layer by layer is easy for a 3-D printer. So researchers have adapted old inkjet printers to hold a suspension of human cells in one reservoir and a gel-like substrate in another. Each pass of the print head lays down a pattern of cells held in place by the gel; when the next layer is applied, the adjacent cells begin to fuse to the layer beneath. If, for example, each layer contains a circle of cells in the same location, the result will be a tube—in other words, a structure very much like a blood vessel. A printer could in fact hold different kinds of cells in an array of ink reservoirs (like those used by color printers), theoretically enabling the creation of entire organs.”
>> Read more about human tissue printing
This technology is still under development, but the Clemson University brains behind the idea are seeing some great results and organ printing isn’t far behind.
Dental Implants
Hospitals aren’t the only places finding new uses in 3D printing technology. Dental offices are also able to use these printers to help them with many different procedures including implants and molds. The InVision™ DP 3-D Printer by 3D Systems Corporation has made this a reality.
“We are delighted to be able to deliver to our dental lab customers a revolutionary new rapid manufacturing solution designed to help them improve their bottom line,” said Abe Reichental, 3D Systems’ president and chief executive officer. “What dental labs need today is the ability to increase their productivity and improve the quality, consistency and delivery of their product to dentists’ offices. Our comprehensive, turnkey InVision™ DP system solution harnesses our extensive rapid manufacturing experience to enable dental labs to transition smoothly from current legacy techniques to the digital mass customizing age.”
This new technology will also help patients keep their costs down. Currently, about 55 million prostheses are created annually in the United States and that amount is expected to increase. The InVision™ DP 3-D Printer can produce “readily castable customized master patterns” in less than 6 hours. This will save hundreds of thousands of dollars in labor and wear-and-tear on equipment.
Think about it. Instead of a week going by while your dentist waits to get new veneer made from your mold, you could feasibly pick it up later the same day.
