The treatment of auricle defect can be by surgical or prosthetic ear rehabilitation depending on the condition.  Current practice by surgeon for prosthetic ear rehabilitation require patient to go for osseointegrated craniofacial implant surgery for retention of the prosthetic ear.  Impression technique play a vital role in accurate reproduction of affected and unaffected ears, orientation of the ear during wax try in and fabrication of ear prostheses. Traditionally, the wax pattern was created from the impression taken from patient and the final prosthesis is processed with silicone material.  This conventional method has always been time consuming, massive work and caused discomfort to patient.  Moreover the accuracy of the final prosthetic sometimes was not satisfied. Improvement in medical imaging technology whereby data from computerized tomography (CT) in 2D format can be converting to 3 dimensional images gave tremendous view for surgeon to visualize the result.  A new and impressive advance in the development of additive manufacturing technology is now being able to be applied in medical field.  The widespread use of computer-aided design (CAD) combine with computer aided manufacturing (CAM) produced the momentum and desire to translate the 3-D images into physical models. Studies and research have indicated the viability of using medical imaging technology, computer aided design (CAD) and additive manufacturing techniques in prosthetics.  This paper proposed a novel method of fabricating the prosthetic ear applying mirror image technique to reconstruct the missing ear, and then fabricate the 3D model of the prosthetic ear using Stereolitography (SLA) technology that will become the master mold to produce the final prosthetic ear.  This method eliminates the traditional wax pattern procedure. A clinical study is done onto a patient in HUSM and comparison is made between traditional method vs new approach using computer aided technology.  Result showed that there is significant different between traditional and new approach design.  The new method also shows time reduction during design and fabrication stage.

RINGKASAN Kajian mengenai telinga manusia adalah penting untuk memberi pengetahuan tentang nilai purata parameter standard untuk telinga. Prostodontik boleh menggunakan nilai ini semasa menghasilkan telinga palsu bagi mendapatkan pandangan estetik yang menyenangkan untuk pesakit yang mempunyai masalah kecacatan telinga. Hasil kajian ini telah berjaya menyediakan data beberapa parameter standard untuk telinga kiri dan kanan bagi penduduk di Kelantan. Kajian morphometric telah dijalankan ke atas 68 sampel telinga normal untuk kedua-dua kiri dan kanan dengan 15 parameter diukur. Data telah diambil dari imbasan CT dan ditukar kepada imej 3 dimensi (3D) menggunakan kaedah pembangunan 'soft tissue'. Hasil kajian analisa morfometrik memberikan nilai purata dan sisihan piawai untuk panjang dan lebar telinga, panjang dan tinggi 'tragus', 'insertion length' telinga, panjang dan lebar 'lobular' dan 'conchal', 'protusion' pada aras 'superaurale' dan 'tragal' dan juga nilai sudut kecenderungan dan simetri telinga. ABSTRACT A study of the human auricle is important to give prior knowledge of average value for standard parameters of the ear. Prosthodontist uses this value when reconstructing the prosthetic ear in order to achieve a pleasant aesthetic glance of the patient with a problem of ear deformity. This study has successfully provided morphometric data of standard ear parameters of both the left and right ear for the Kelantan population. Morphometric study was conducted on 68 samples of normal left and right ears. 15 parameters were measured. Data was retrieved from Computed Tomography (CT) scans and converted to 3-dimensional (3D) digital images using soft tissue development. Results from this morphometric analysis provided the mean and standard deviation values for auricular length and width, length and height of tragus, insertion length of auricle, length and width of lobular and conchal, protusion at superaurale and tragal level as well as the inclination and symmetrical angle.

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