Evaluation of additive manufacturing processes in the production of oculo-palpebral prosthesis

Abstract

Background: Prosthetic restorations are made to adapt or attach missing human parts in order to restore function and appearance. Maxillofacial defects connote a greater impact on patients, since the face cannot be concealed, and all the senses of the human body are expressed in it. Therefore, in order to restore the patient’s quality of life, they are the ones that require the best possible adaptation to the characteristics of the patients. Methods: For the maxillofacial prostheses to fit patients, they must be personalized for each patient. The NGO “Mais Identidade” is a multidisciplinary team that specializes in the rehabilitation of patients with maxillofacial trauma. They use digital manufacturing as a tool to manufacture personalized maxillofacial prostheses for patients. With the help of the NGO, the following research is conducted with the purpose of evaluating different methods of additive manufacturing, 3D printing, in order to select the equipment that suits the needs of the method used in the manufacture of maxillofacial prostheses. To this end, eyelid models will be manufactured in different additive manufacturing equipment, and these will be evaluated according to their economic, physical, and aesthetic characteristics.

Present and future of extraoral maxillofacial prosthodontics: Cancer rehabilitation

“…The thermoplastic filament is the most accessible 3D printing material that can replicate the macroanatomy of a facial structure but has a limitation on the microanatomy due to the evident layers and its staircase effect. On the other hand, all resin 3D printing technologies (SLA, LCD, DLP, Polyjet) have demonstrated their ability to reproduce the most delicate details of facial skin microanatomy characteristics ( 78 ).…”