An 83-year-old woman in Belgium is now the proud owner of what could be possibly the coolest lower jaw in history: a 3D printed titanium mandible replacement. The jaw was implanted successfully a few months ago by doctors at the University of Hasselt BIOMED Research Institute in Belgium to replace the woman’s seriously infected jaw bone. The replacement was 3D printed by researchers at the University of Hasselt out of titanium powder. The jaw bone was printed by LayerWise with a new technique called Laser Melting technology which creates a patient-specific bone replacement that will, when the patient has recovered, work much like the jaw-bone her body built.
via Inhabitat
February 6, 2012
