Restoration of Facial Bone Defect using Patient-Specific Implant.

Facial bone defects can be caused by various causes, such as congenital deformities, iatrogenic results, and trauma. If the size of the bone defect is small, it can be repaired using premanufactured products, but it is not accurate and impossible to restore large bony defect. In the effort to overcome these limitations of premanufac-tured implants, the authors use patient-specific implant (PSI) via computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing and 3D printing technologies for facial bone restoration surgery. In this study, the authors use polyetherketoneketone and titanium alloy for implant material among various capable of 3D printing. As a result of analyzing the patients who underwent surgery in this study, PSIs were made in 57 sites for 29 patients. The most common reason for surgery was to improve the patient's esthetics (14 cases), followed by the improvement of iatrogenic complications and postoperative dissatisfaction (11 cases). Restoration of the congenital bony defect was the least (4 cases). Postoperative complications were occurred in 5 patients (screw loosening in 1 case, postoperative dissatisfaction in 3 cases, and postoperative infection in 1 case). There is no case of rejection after implant insertion, because the authors use polyetherketoneketone and titanium alloy for implant material which are good biocompatibility. By using PSIs via 3D technologies, the authors can overcome the limitations of premanufactured products. Moreover, the authors could get better results. So these cutting edge technologies can improve our surgical procedures and predictability.