Sam's 3D jaws!

A 83 year old women has received a 3d printed object jaw

The jaw was fitted in June in the Netherlands but only recently being publicised it is made from titanium powder heated and fused together by a laser one by one technicians say this is the start of 3d printing for more specific and important parts. The surgery follows research followed out at the biomedical research institute hasselt university in Belgium. And the implant was made by the laser wise company who specialises in metal parts manufacturing who are based in the same country

The patient involved had developed a chronic bone infection and doctors thought the risks were to high to operate so when the 3d printer was invented she was the first to receive the implant. The implant is really complex including articulated joints, cavities to help muscle attachment and grooves to direct the regrowth of nerves and veins the hard part was the design when finished it only took a few hours to make. Once they received the 3D digital design, the part was split up into 2D layers and then they sent those layers sections to the printing machine Ruben Wauthle LayerWises medical applications engineer told the BBC. It used a laser beam to melt thin layers of titanium powder together to build the part. This was repeated with each layer melted to the previous layer. It took 33 layers to build 1mm of height, so there were many thousand layers necessary to build this jawbone. The woman was able to go home after four days. Her new jaw weighs 107g, just over a third heavier than before, but the doctors said that she should find it easy to get used to the extra weight.

By Sam Hales