This article provides highlights of the general process and workflow of creating a 3D-printed model from a medical image and discusses the applications of additively manufactured materials. It provides a brief background on Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classification and regulation of medical devices, with an emphasis on 3D-printed devices. Then, the article discusses two broad applications of 3D printing in craniofacial surgery: surgery and education. Next, it discusses, with respect to surgical applications, preoperative planning, use in the operating room, surgical guides, and implants. The article includes sections on education that focus on the use of 3D-printed surgical simulators and other tools to teach medical students and residents. It briefly touches on the FDA regulations associated with the respective application of 3D printing in medicine. Lastly, the article briefly discusses the state of medical billing and reimbursement for this service.

This article provides an overview of the adoption of additively manufactured materials in dentistry. It discusses the practical workflows of a three-dimensional printing technology, vat photopolymerization. Three subgroups of the vat photopolymerization process are laser beam or classic stereolithography apparatus (SLA), direct light processing, and liquid-crystal-display-masked SLA. The article covers two subgroups of 3D printing resins-based appliances, namely intraoral and extraoral appliances. Information on various types of dental appliances and the fabrication of in-office appliances is provided. The article also reviews fourth-dimension printing and discusses the applications of the personalized care model in medicine and dentistry.

Additive manufacturing (AM), or three-dimensional (3D) printing, is a class of manufacturing processes that create the desired geometries of an object, or an assembly of objects, layer by layer or volumetrically. AM has been used extensively for manufacturing medical devices, due to its versatility to satisfy the specific needs of an intended medical field for the product/device. This article provides a comprehensive review of AM in medical devices by the medical specialty panels of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Code of Federal Regulations, Parts 862 to 892, including anesthesiology, ear and nose, general hospital, ophthalmic, plastic surgery, radiology, cardiovascular, orthopedic, dental, neurology, gynecology, obstetrics, physical medicine, urology, toxicology, and pathology. It is classified under these panels, and critical reviews and future outlooks are provided. The application of AM to fabricate medical devices in each panel is reviewed; lastly, a comparison is provided to reveal relevant gaps in each medical field.

Additive manufacturing (AM), or three-dimensional printing, has ushered in an era of mass customization in the many different industries in which it is used. The use of the personalized surgical instrument (PSI) is no exception. Initially, PSIs were not a result of the use of AM; rather, what occurred is an improvement in their methods of manufacturing. This article discusses the fundamentals, benefits, manufacturing, and other application examples beyond orthopedics of PSIs. In addition, an outlook of AM in biomedical applications is also covered.

Bridging the gap between education and medical practice, centralized hospital-based 3D printing, or what is termed point-of-care (POC) manufacturing, has been rapidly growing in the United States as well as internationally. This article provides insights into the considerations and the current workflow of creating 3D-printed anatomical models at the POC. Case studies are introduced to show the complex range of anatomical models that can be produced while also exploring how patient care benefits. It describes the advanced form of communication in medicine. The advantages as well as pitfalls of using the patient-specific 3D-printed models at the POC are addressed, demonstrating the fundamental knowledge needed to create 3D-printed anatomical models through POC manufacturing.

Powder-bed fusion (PBF) is a group of additive manufacturing (AM) processes that includes selective laser sintering, selective laser melting, and electron beam melting. This article explains the processes and parameters of PBF systems that are used for biomedical applications. It also presents the desirable properties of biomedical devices and the advantages of using PBF systems for biomedical applications.

This article outlines the selection criteria for choosing an implant material for biomedical devices in orthopedic, dental, soft-tissue, and cardiovascular applications. It details the development of various implants, such as metallic, ceramic, and polymeric implants. The article discusses specific problems associated with implant manufacturing processes and the consequent compromises in the properties of functionally graded implants. It describes the manufacturing of the functionally-graded hip implant by using the LENS process. The article reviews four different types of tissue responses to the biomaterial. It discusses the testing methods of implant failure, such as in vitro and in vivo assessment of tissue compatibility.

This article provides an overview of additive manufacturing (AM) methods, the three-dimensional (3D)-AM-related market, and the medical additive manufactured applications. It focuses on the current scenario and future developments related to metal AM for medical applications. The discussion covers the benefits of using 3D-AM technology in the medical field, provides specific examples of medical devices fabricated by AM, reviews trends in metal implant development using AM, and presents future prospects for the development of novel high-performance medical devices via metal 3D-additive manufacturing.

Inkjet printing is extremely precise in terms of the ejected microdroplets (picoliter volume), contributing an unparalleled lateral resolution. Additionally, the benefits of high-speed deposition, contactless ink delivery, and the use of a range of ink materials endorse this technique as suitable for high-throughput 3D manufacturing. This article provides an overview of inkjet 3D printing (also referred to as 3D inkjetting). It then highlights the major components and accessories used in commercial and laboratory-based 3D inkjet printers. Next, the article describes the process physics of the transient phenomena involved in both binder-jetting- and direct-inkjetting-based 3D printing. It then discusses the scope and advantages of 3D inkjetting in the manufacturing of metallic, ceramic, and polymer-based biomaterials. The article also discusses several approaches and methodologies to examine the in vitro cytocompatibility and in vivo biocompatibility of both binder-jetted and direct-inkjetted scaffolds for biomedical applications. Finally, it discusses the challenges and troubleshooting methodologies in 3D inkjetting of biomaterials.

Titanium and its alloys have been used extensively in a wide variety of implant applications, such as artificial heart pumps, pacemaker cases, heart valve parts, and load-bearing bone or hip joint replacements or bone splints. This article discusses the properties of titanium and its alloys and presents a list of titanium-base biomaterials. Titanium components are produced in wrought, cast, and powder metallurgy (PM) form. The article describes forging, casting, and heat treating of titanium alloys for producing titanium components. Typical mechanical properties of titanium biomedical implant alloys are listed in a tabular form. The article presents an overview of the surface-modification methods for titanium and its alloys implants. It concludes with a section on biocompatibility and in vivo corrosion of titanium alloys.

Hydroxyapatite (HA) is one of the most popular materials in tissue scaffold engineering due to its similarity to the nature of human bone; it accounts for more than half of the total weight of the latter. Selective laser sintering (SLS) is an additive manufacturing method that is used in producing tissue engineering parts from HA feedstocks. This article provides a brief overview of the process itself, along with a detailed review of HA-based tissue engineering applications using SLS. Discussion on the various polymer composites is presented. A detailed overview of selected publications on HA-based SLS studies is listed, which provides insight regarding technical aspects of processing HA powder feedstocks.

This article focuses on the directed-energy deposition (DED) additive manufacturing (AM) technique of biomedical alloys. First, it provides an overview of the DED process. This is followed by a section describing the design and development of the multiphysics computational modeling of the layer-by-layer fusion-based DED process. A brief overview of the primary governing equations, boundary conditions, and numerical methods prescribed for modeling laser-based metal AM is then presented. Next, the article discusses fundamental concepts related to laser surface melting and laser-assisted bioceramic coatings/composites on implant surfaces, with particular examples related to biomedical magnesium and titanium alloys. It then provides a review of the processes involved in DED of biomedical stainless steels, Co-Cr-Mo alloys, and biomedical titanium alloys. Further, the article covers novel applications of DED for titanium-base biomedical implants. It concludes with a section on the forecast of DED in biomedical applications.