83 year-old woman got 3D printed mandible | Hacker News Reader

83 year-old woman got 3D printed mandible

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50 pointsDanielRibeiro10 comments

Just watched this TED talk today[1] and mentioned to a friend that 3D printing is going to be "really, really cool". While the video probably won't show anything new for your average hacker here it might be a good introduction for people around you.

Creating a lower jaw within a few hours is "really, really cool".

[1] http://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_harouni_a_primer_on_3d_printin...

Pretty cool. I am looking forward to when we can print an new spine and other major bones.

The University's press release: http://www.uhasselt.be/UH/Tijdschriften/ToonPersmededeling.h...

I'm extremely impressed that this just took a few hours. How did they get the right shape? Did they just print a copy of an old (pre-infection) scan of her mandible? Or did a doctor "clean up" the scan of her current, damaged jaw?

That's just the printing time. Designing the jaw took much longer (it's a complex joint apparently), and after printing it needed to be polished and coated in a bio-compatible layer by a different company.

Printer's press release: http://www.layerwise.com/en/news/layerwise-builds-the-world%...

About that 'apparently': I guess they would take their time for any joint, but a jaw is special in two ways:

- it hinges at two points. As with doors, those must be t exactly the right distance of each other, or the thing simply will not fit, and be perfectly in line, or rotating the thing will cause huge forces on those hinges. I guess these could easily break of the new jaw or, worse, parts of the upper jaw.

- it must close perfectly flat; you do not want to have only a few teeth touch when it is maximally closed.

and there's even a youtube 'animated slides':

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP1jUABA6A4&feature=youtu.be

(skynet will be their main customers)

kudos to the whole team(s)

Pointless summary of http://www.3ders.org/articles/20120203-83-year-old-woman-got...

Neat. What material is it made out of?

Titanium.

Reminded me of this website where you can send a 3D drawing and get it printed in titanium (among other materials):

http://i.materialise.com/materials/titanium

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