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In 1998, a 68-year-old grandfather of three and a veteran of the Vietnam War, Shirley Anderson, was diagnosed with tongue cancer. When he first sought out treatment, his doctors inserted a radium implant into his jaw to battle the disease.
The treatment was successful in so far as the disease disappeared – but Anderson’s jaw also disappeared in the process. The radium had destroyed all the cells in the area, leaving him without a jaw or Adam’s apple.
Anderson was left to wear surgical masks in order to hide the bottom half of his face from the public.
14 years later, in 2012, Dr. Travis Bellicchi from the Indiana University School of Dentistry proposed a solution to Anderson’s condition. Dr. Bellicchi wanted to print a prosthesis to replace Anderson’s missing lower jaw.
Anderson wholeheartedly agreed to participate.
Dr. Bellicchi’s initial research and experimentation involved setting Anderson’s face in clay and using the cast as a model for redesigning his missing jaw. The product proved to be, unfortunately, too unwieldy and heavy to allow to obtain normal movement in his jaw.
That was when Dr. Bellicchi turned to one of his students, Cade Jacobs, who specializes in 3D printing. Together, the two used a Formlabs stereolithographic 3D printer and the program, ZBrush, to create an impression of Anderson’s face – pores and wrinkles and all.
The most critical part of the process was ensuring that the lightweight, silicone prosthesis would sit comfortably along Anderson’s face – and it did.
Following Anderson and his wife’s joy at their success, Jacobs and Dr. Bellicchi have worked with another six patients to create other, unique maxillofacial prosthodontics. “It started off as a unique challenge and something very different that would be interesting to be a part of,” Jacobs explained, “And then it kind of morphed into helping people in a very unique way.”
He and Dr. Bellicchi have full intentions to continue making prosthetics to help other patients in need.
