Development of patient specific 3D printed mandible implant

Abstract

Medical 3D Printing has a variety of uses in dentistry, oral surgery and dental lab works. Modern dentistry plays a major role in 3D printing technology. The designing of a patient-specific mandible implant for cancer and fracture cases is based on the patient’s medical imaging data and 3D printing. This study procedure uses the patient CT image data in DICOM format (Digital imaging and communication medicine). The patient’s corrupted mandible is extracted from the skull CT scan. The anatomical reconstruction approaches are used for the extraction of the final 3D printed image. The final design is printed and then the stress analysis for different polymers is made to provide efficiency. Analyzing the suitable polymer involves biting and chewing. The maximum values of von mises stress were measured. Thus, the reconstructed mandible was close to the mechanical behavior of the normal bone. This 3D printed mandible implant is patient-specific compared to the existing system.