The Application of 3d Printing in Medicine (Essay Sample)

THE APPLICATION OF 3D PRINTING IN MEDICINE
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The applications of 3D printing transcend almost every aspects of humanity. There are numerous ways 3D printing can be used to increase value to the way people live. One of the significant areas of application of 3D printing is medicine. The use of 3D printing has not been widely used because of the high cost of materials and maintenance of the printers for small scale production. Nonetheless, there are some applications in medicine that have already proven efficient and reliable as opposed to traditional alternatives. The medical application of 3D printing is growing at a fast rate, and it is expected to create significant revolutionary changes in healthcare.[Jim Banks. "Adding value in additive manufacturing: Researchers in the United Kingdom and Europe look to 3D printing for customization," IEEE Pulse 4, no.6 (2013): 22–26.]
There are both current and future applications of 3D printing in medicine. One of the current applications is the production of customized prosthetics and implants. This application has enabled the addition of value to patients' lives and significantly increased the horizons for physicians. Since the invention of 3D printing, it has been used widely in the manufacturing industry to produce prototypes. However, since the applications of the technology in medicine, it is possible to produce customized dental implants, bones, ears, exoskeletons, blood vessels and organs among others. The development of the technology has made it possible to produce stem cells and cell cultures which were not possible in the past.[Carl Schubert, Mark van Langeveld, Larry Donoso. "Innovations in 3D printing: a 3D overview from optics to organs," Br J Ophthalmol 98, no. 2 (2014): 159–161.]
Another application of 3D printing technology in the medical field is customized drug dosage systems. The pharmaceutical dosage of medications is commonly standardized and set in a one-size-fits-all delivery. However, through 3D printing, pharmacists can include exact control dose and the ability to produce intricate drug-release systems that are tailored towards a patient’s condition. The drugs are manufactured for patients with pharmacogenetics-polymorphism. Capacity to produce drugs that have very narrow therapeutic indices is now possible with the 3D printing technology. Currently, tablets are prepared by well-established processes, and each step could bring challenges such as degradation of the drug and change its form leading to batch failures. On the contrary, 3D printing technology does not have such challenges and drug manufacturing could become more accurate.
Additionally, every person is different and unique and with the technology of 3D printing, it is possible for surgeons to make anatomical models used for surgical preparations. Doctors usually rely on CT scans and MRI to plan and visualize their patients' anatomy before performing surgery. Now it is possible for physicians to have tangible ...