The Use of Laser Scanner and Rapid Prototyping to Fabricate Auricular Prosthesis

The traditional method to manufacture the auricular prosthesis is based on producing a cast of the patient's contralateral ear by direct impression, and sculpting a mirror pattern corresponding to the missing ear. The accuracy and efficiency of prosthesis produced by conventional method absolutely depend on the skill, experience and aesthetic level. An approach that combines laser scanning, reverse engineering (RE) and rapid prototyping (RP) technology for prosthesis fabrication is presented in this paper. As an example related to the design and manufacture of auricular prosthesis, an optical 3D laser digitizer is used to capture the morphology of a human ear. These data are transferred into RE software to create the prosthesis using a computer-aided design (CAD) model, which is directed into the RP machine for the production of the physical model. Finally, the RP model can be used to create the silicone rubber mold to cast the auricular prosthesis. The research results have shown that the integrated method can produce exact-fit prosthesis.