3D Printer revolutionize the Eye Prostheses

Patients who need a prosthetic eye often need to spend huge amounts of money as it is very expensive and not always covered by health insurance. Therefore 3D printing can interfere in this situation as a cheaper and faster way to create a prosthetic eye.

In 2014, during the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), researchers presented their findings. They developed a fast and inexpensive way to make facial prostheses for eye cancer patients using facial topographical scanning software and 3D printing.

The procedure works as follows; the patients are scanned on the undamaged side of their face using a mobile scanner. Then a scan is taken of the side of the face with the orbital defect and after that the software program meshes the two scans together to create a 3D image of the face. The topographical information goes to a 3D printer, which translates the data into a mask formed out of “injection-molded rubber suffused with colored pigments” that corresponds the patient skin tone.

This technological advance allows people who cannot afford the traditional prostheses as it is too expensive, to buy one that was 3D printed in no time.

Sources: 

http://3dprintingindustry.com/2014/10/22/3d-scan-eye-prostheses/ 

http://www.aao.org/