Additively manufactured maxillofacial implants and guides – achieving routine use

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the key design process factors acting as drivers or barriers to routine health service adoption of additively manufactured (AM) patient-specific devices. The technical efficacy of, and clinical benefits from, using computer-aided design (CAD) and AM in the production of such devices (implants and guides) has been established. Despite this, they are still not commonplace. With AM equipment and CAD tool costs largely outside of the clinician’s or designer’s control, the opportunity exists to explore design process improvement routes to facilitate routine health service implementation. Design/methodology/approach – A literature review, new data from three separate clinical case studies and experience from an institute working on collaborative research and commercial application of CAD/AM in the maxillofacial specialty, were analysed to extract a list and formulate models of design process factors. Findings – A semi-digital design and fabrication process is c...