Son helps restore his father’s face using 3D printing

He was left without an upper jaw bone, cheekbones, his nose, and his palate, and in their place was a gaping hole. Without the ability to properly speak, eat or drink, doctors sought out a solution to make this brave man’s life as normal as possible.

Keith had tried numerous mask-like prostheses in the past, but none of them had proved to adequately function as he had hoped.

So his son, Scott, 43, had the idea of using 3D printing to reconstructe his father’s face. He teamed up with reconstructive Scientist, Jason Watson, at Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre, and together they took on the task of creating a new facial prosthetic for Keith, one which would be based off of his son Scott’s facial features.
“I jumped at the chance to help dad because I know how much he’s been through. It’s been a struggle for him and it has knocked him a bit so I wanted to try and do the best I can to help”, explained Scott.

Watson had Scott come into the hospital where they 3D scanned his face. From the scans, a sophisticated computer algorithm created a 3D printable model, which the team at Queen’s Medical Centre was able to print out. Basically doctors now had a 3D printed physical replica of a portion of Scott’s face they then were able to copy in wax and create a mold from. From that mold they then created a silcone mask from Scott, which fit Keith’s face nearly perfectly.

Adapted from: http://3dprint.com/59351/3d-print-face/

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