Reaping the benefits of 3d printing
Last year, Grecia the Costa Rican was attacked by a group of young boys, and he lost the upper part of his beak. Now, he has a new beak, and it's all thanks to 3d printing.
A success!
Without a beak, toucans can't sing. For over a year, there were no dulcet tones emanating from Grecia, but now there are. Thanks to 3d printing and a donated beak from a dead comrade, Grecia is back in action.
Schnabelprothese
It was a group of boys who brought the hammer down on Grecia. To bring him back into form, doctors first put the injured toucan through a CT scan. Then they used computers to develop an exact model of his beak, which was eventually used to create his 3d beak.
A new hand
This is Maxence, a six-year-old French boy was born without a right hand. He received a new orange, yellow and blue hand from a 3d printer, and it only cost around 50 euros to produce!
A wheelchair for Luisa
This street dog from Italy lost her front legs in an accident. Her new owners, a family near Ravensburg, wanted to help get her back up and had a special wheelchair created with 3d components to help do just that.
Breast shell straight out of the printer
Luisa lives with Manuel Tosché and Petra Rapp, and both are involved in developing 3d printers. Her breast shell was designed by their son and his girlfriend. If Luisa grows out of her shell, there's no reason to worry. She can just have a bigger one printed out.
Surrogate skull
These components for a replacement skull were created with a 3d printer. Just like with the toucan's beak, the template was a CT scan, which in essence is a 3d X-ray. This allows for an extremely precise remake - almost to the nearest tenth of a millimeter.
Fake bone becomes real bone
This implant was made in a similar manner using hydroxylapatite powder, which allows it to fuse with the bone. With time, actual bone material is regenerated, and the material used to make the implant simply erodes.
Individualized dentistry, 3d style
The days of biting down to create a model for your fake teeth are long gone. Today, CT scans are sent straight to the laboratory and - poof - within days your dentures arrive in a parcel sent by the manufacturer.
Harder when it comes to the heart
Other branches of medicine have profited less from 3d printing, with cardiology being one of those. Although it may be possible to create a 3d printout of this heart with its arteries, arterioles and capillaries, you could only use it probably as a model in science class.
Cells are the long term goal
The French Institute of Health and Medical Research is working to create individualized cells using 3d printing, a goal that would enable people to recover from immunal deficiences. Their ultimate goal is one day to produce cell structures, perhaps even parts of organs, that can be implanted in humans.