Maxillofacial surgery is done for several reasons; some people do it for making themselves more beautiful; in other cases hereditary problems, pathologic diseases, cancer, trauma or accident cause part of the facial tissue to be damaged and people have to do surgery in order to restore it.
There are several methods for maxillofacial surgery. In one method, the surgeon applies his or her desired changes to the patient's jaw bone. In another way, the prosthesis may be used to apply the changes.
Among the problems of plastic surgeries, one is that the patient does not know how his or her face will look like after operation, and whether its changes will be so great that worth the pain, time and cost of surgery. Also, in maxillofacial surgery with prosthesis, adaptation of the prosthesis to the affected area is very difficult and the surgeon will have to spend a lot of time doing this.
3D scan and maxillofacial surgery
The use of complementary 3D scan technique is very helpful for maxillofacial surgery. In this method, before the surgery, the patient's face will be scanned three-dimensionally. Next, in the consultation session in the presence of selected doctor, patient and design specialist, the patient’s after surgery face will be modeled. The patient can also easily explain his or her thoughts to the physician and after the physician's approval, apply them to the model, with the help of the design specialist.
In the next step, during the surgery, the final design of the applicant's face will be shown to the physician by a monitor, so that the physician can remember and apply the desired changes.
In maxillofacial surgery with a prosthesis, based on a three-dimensional image, and the final design, Tarah Teb engineers specified the best prosthesis form for the patient and produce it’s maquette with a three-dimensional printer. The mesh is also shaped based on the maquette to fit the prosthesis.
Based on the designed maquette, the surgeon understands which prosthesis is better for the patient and what changes should be applied to prosthesis in order to make it ideal. Design and production of 3D models help to plan and design high-precision preoperative surgical incisions that significantly reduce surgical time, increase surgery accuracy, and decrease errors, resulting in better surgical outcomes.
An example of mesh used for the patient is shown in the following image.
