Renishaw has collaborated with University Dental Hospital Wales (UDH) to manufacture a series of dental products using additive manufacturing (AM).
Matt Revell
Among the products includes cobalt chrome frameworks and custom maxillofacial implants and surgical guides.
Ed Littlewood, marketing manager of Renishaw’s medical and dental products division said: “AM allows hospitals to achieve high precision when producing implants. By collaborating with Renishaw, UDH can develop their maxillofacial implants further, seeing improvements with each case and helping a wider range of patients and surgeons across different departments.”
UDH treats 100,000 patients per year and acts as a teaching hospital for Cardiff University’s School of Dentistry.
By using custom made devices, hospitals can reduce surgery time considerably as each device is designed to fit the patient. Standard implants may need modifications or the patient’s surrounding bone may need extra trimming for the device to fit. This could reduce the risks related to extended time under anaesthesia and save time in surgery and therefore cost.
Roger Maggs, senior chief dental technologist and head of dental technology services at UDH said: “Several hospitals are reaping the benefits of additive manufacturing in implant production. We have the advantage of having worked with Renishaw for three years in the dental field. This has put us ahead of the game and in a position where we can now start thinking about producing more unique designs that will benefit our surgeons.
“The staff at UDH are also benefitting from the partnership. The team are involved in every stage of the development of new technologies for medical applications, including inputting CT data and making and manipulating digital models ahead of surgery.”