The use of 3D printing technology in the creation of patient-specific facial prostheses

Personalised medicine aims to optimise patient outcomes by tailoring treatments and interventions to the individual. While this approach can offer a number of benefits, it can be accompanied by significant overheads in terms of resources. Prostheses exist in order to restore and replicate the normal functions and appearance of the body but if these are not individually tailored to the patient’s needs then a true restoration cannot be fully achieved. Traditionally a labour intensive process, the fabrication of craniofacial prostheses, involves taking a plaster cast of the area to be treated, hand carving wax models of the restoration and multiple meetings with the patient to alter this wax restoration before making a final prosthesis in silicone.

Utilising the patient’s pre-existing computed tomography (CT) images and 3D printing technology, a patient-specific prosthesis can be created with improved efficiency and accuracy.

This study demonstrates methods used to create a patient-specific orbital prosthesis using CT images. These images were manipulated in a way which allowed for the intact orbit to be mirrored and used to develop a 3D printed model which acted as the starting point to create a silicone prosthesis.

The benefits of using this method include reduced manufacturing time, decreased outpatient appointments, improved personalised outcomes and a repeatable process allowing multiple prostheses to be made.

3D printing is a valuable tool which can provide significant savings in time and improve patient outcomes by offering a tailored approach to each individual’s treatment.