Technology
is moving along nicely in some areas, other areas not so nicely, but today’s
post is a good news post, so we’ll concentrate on the first. 3-D printing is
back in the news and we have seen previously how easy it is to fabricate
plastic objects, thus making the future for bespoke items golden as they could be
at least as cheap as mass produced ones, and probably with less waste.
The
medical area has received attention with soft organs, complete with built in
blood vessels looking possible. The printers can also print ceramics and these
parts have been shown to work as a base scaffolding for bone to grow onto. Prosthetic parts would appear to be a
“no-brainer” too.
Now
the BBC reports that an 83-year-old Dutch woman has had a new jaw fitted (1).
It was made by Layerwise who have a print shop in Belgium, with input from
Hasselt U. The lady was fitted up with this last June and is due to have a set
of teeth torqued down into it shortly so that she’ll be able to nosh and gnash
with the best of them.
The
printer printed out titanium powder, which was fused one layer at a time with a
laser and the jaw was finally finished with a layer of ceramic. The jawbone
replacement weighs in a little heavier at 107 grams, but a few packs of chewing
gum should build up the muscles.
This
could end the professional boxer’s “glass jaw” at a stroke. Just like breast
implants have become cosmetically popular, I can envision a future with many more
manly square jaws in evidence along the main drags in Tinseltown and it’s
wannabe lookalikes around the world.
