Woman gets replacement jaw via 3D printer

An elderly woman has received a replacement titanium jaw, an operation participants say demonstrates the potential of patient-specific body implants.

Surgeons replaced a woman's jaw with a titanum 3D-printed one. Image credit: LayerWise

Belgian company LayerWise said on Monday that it has produced an entire jaw using additive manufacturing, a technique that allows fabricators to make an item directly from a CAD drawing. The transplant demonstrates that precision 3D printing can be effective for both bones and organ implants, the company said.

The method selectively heats metal powder particles with a laser to construct an object layer by layer. Using this method allows LayerWise to create complex shapes that are custom-made for patients and do not require glue or multiple parts.

"It used a laser beam to melt successive thin layers of titanium powder together to build the part," Ruben Wauthle, LayerWise's medical applications engineer, told the BBC. "This was repeated with each cross section melted to the previous layer. It took 33 layers to build 1mm of height, so you can imagine there were many thousand layers necessary to build this jawbone." 

For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see 3D printer produces new jaw for woman on CNET News.