Application of the Month: 3D Printed Scaffolds Help Rebuild Australian Man’s Jawbone

Researchers at the University of Queensland have accomplished an incredible feat. Clinicians at the school of dentistry have successfully used custom-made 3D printed bone scaffolds in staged alveolar bone augmentation to help rebuild part of a man’s jawbone. The hope is that the process will be able to be optimized and used for even more patients suffering from bone defects in the jaw.

Staged alveolar bone augmentation, a surgical procedure to improve the shape and size of the alveolar ridge for dental implants or prostheses, is a demanding procedure that, while often successful, can be difficult. Indeed, there is not currently an accepted ‘ideal approach’ for it according to the researchers, although guided bone generation (GBR) is the most common.

Results showing the jawbone as well as the lattice and the final results

Common issues using GBR include the need for chair side membrane shaping, as well as second-stage removal for non-resorbable membranes. And while 3D printing has been successfully used for patient-specific meshes to regenerate alveolar ride defects, these have been made of titanium and thus need to be surgically removed. The researchers sought to overcome this.