Rhinoplasty patients can get realistic 3D printed before and after surgery images

Rhinoplasty is well known as a nose job. It has been one on the leading types of plastic surgery for many years. More often it’s used by the famous and rich to improve their appearance, but it is also effective for correcting medical issues. Recently Dr Yakub Avşar – an Iranian plastic surgeon from Turkey – explained that 3D printing can be effective in improving his patients’ appearance. He even released a video to make it clearer.

But you shouldn’t think that he prints noses for his patients. Instead of this, he uses 3D printing to show them what they’ll look like after surgery. As Dr Avşar told, he had always known that cosmetic surgery and design have a lot in common. In the past, when he molded patients’ faces of clay to help them imagine how they’ll change, he imagined himself an artist. However this procedure took quite a long time and he never liked the results.

When he saw the 3D printing and scanning technology demonstration, doctor understood that the technology could be beneficial for him and his work. Now it’s easier for him to create more realistic before and after images for patients. This still has to be verified, but in spite of this, he still believes that nowadays he is the only plastic surgeon in the world, who employs 3D printing in plastic surgeries.

That’s how it works. The doctor and his assistants develop a digital picture of the patient’s face and its features. Using the special software, comprehensive before and after images are created that accurately show the procedures. He 3D prints his before and after images on a Projet 660 Pro. This professional-rank 3D printer was developed by 3D Systems. It uses laser-sintering technology to create objects of white powder.

Dr Yakub Avşar

The excessive powder that remains from the process will be removed from the build with a vacuum and then 3D prints will be fixed in some special suspension. The result represents perfectly-detailed and realistic masks of the faces of his patients. In one of the videos one of his patients from Stockholm – a young woman – was very excited about the operation and 3D prototype of her face. When she saw her new face before the real surgery, she was so excited that she couldn’t even describe it.

According to her, she didn’t know whether she could compare it to seeing her own child for the first time, or the minister saying she’s married now or anything else. But that was more than magical. Dr Avşar says that the majority of his patients are positive about this new service. This case is one more example how 3D printing can influence medical practice.