DESIGN, ANALYSIS, AND FABRICATION OF PATIENT-SPECIFIC IMPLANT FOR MAXILLOFACIAL SURGERY

The design of a Patient-Specific Implant is a challenging task for an engineer as it is a multidisciplinary task which involves both Engineering and Medical fields. Keeping given all the objectives specified by the doctor the implant needs to be designed. The data required to design an implant is the CT scan of the patient. Using the segmentation process the CT scan will be converted into a 3D model. The Segmentation process has been done using Slicer 3D software. The 3D model in the present study is the maxilla of the skull for which an implant is to be designed. A 3D modelling software AUTODESK MESHMIXER has been used to design the implant. All the designed implants which need to Additive Manufactured are exported into STL format. But unfortunately, as STL files have several errors they need to be rectified to improve the quality of the Additive Manufactured product. The error rectification is done using AUTODESK NETFABB software. The static structural analysis is considered to calculate the stress concentration and the displacement induced in the implant when the bite force of 1st molar is considered. From the results, it can be known whether the implant is safe to use for the patient. OPTISTRUCT (Altair Hyperworks) software has been used to perform the static structural analysis. This paper focuses mainly on providing a complete outlook of all the processes that are followed to successfully design, fabricate and analyse the performance of an implant.