Selective laser sintering technology for customized fabrication of facial prostheses

Traditionally, wax or clay sculpted patterns have been used in the development of facial prostheses. New advances in rapid prototyping technologies have demonstrated significant advantages compared to more conventional techniques for fabricating facial prostheses. The use of selective laser sintering technology described in this report is an alternative approach for fabricating a wax pattern for a partial nasal prosthesis. This new approach can generate the wax nasal pattern directly and reduce labor-intensive laboratory procedures. (J Prosthet Dent 2008;100:56-60)