Medical First: Doctors Implant 3D-Printed Jaw in Patient

News Staff : Apr 13, 2016
JNI Media – United With Israel

Amazingly, only a few hours after his surgery the patient started to eat normally.

(Israel)—[United with Israel] The department of oral and maxillofacial surgery at the Baruch Padeh Medical Center, Poriya, near Tiberias, treated a patient suffering from a large tumor in the back of his jaw by replacing the damaged part with a replacement they created on a 3-D printer. (Photo: Baruch Padeh Medical Center, Poriya/via United with Israel)

The patient, David Goldstein, 64, a resident of Tiberias, was suffering non-specific pain in his jaw. At the oral and maxillofacial surgery dept. he underwent a series of tests that discovered in his mouth a lung metastasis close to half an inch in size that absorbed the back of the jaw.

"Surgery of metastasis in the jaw is not commonly done. On the other hand, we know that an oncological treatment—radiation and chemotherapy—don't solve the [missing jaw tissue] problem, Dept. Head Dr. Imad Abu al-Naag explained. "So, after consulting with the oncologists at Rambam and Sheba hospitals, we decided to make the rare move in such a case and perform surgery." (Photo: The 3-D printed jaw/Baruch Padeh Medical Center, Poriya/via United with Israel)

After the decision to do the surgery, the team conducted several conferences with the team at A.B. Dental, a company providing dentists with solutions that include computerized and custom-made implants, and decided to reconstruct the jaw joint using 3-D printing technology.

"It's the best treatment available around the world today," said Dr. Avi Toueg, a senior member of the department. He reported that...

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