How can I print life-sized human skull with disarticulated mandible?

[RCH]

I want to have a life-sized human skull printed from DICOM files, and I'm wondering if the mandible can be printed separately, so that I can articulate them.  Has anyone heard of this being done?  Is it possible to somehow separate the DICOM files of skull and mandible, so they can be separately printed?  If so, what are my material options? 
BTW -- I recognize that a separate mandible is unlikely to stay in place on the skull, and that's fine; I'm capable of fabricating some method of holding it in place. 
Thank you in advance for any thoughts on the topic.

[Angel Sosa]

Hello!, maybe this model  printed by  @valchanov could help you, regards

 

[RCH]

19 minutes ago, Angel Sosa said:

Hello!, maybe this model  printed by  @valchanov could help you, regards

 

Thank you for the suggestion, Angel! 
I do want to have it printed from my own DICOM files, rather than someone else's, but perhaps the person who did that has already figured out how to separate the two, and could do the same for me, for a fee. 
Do you think that printing from 2 separate DICOM files (one for the cranium, the other for the mandible) would require two different printing jobs, or a significantly higher cost than just printing them as one unit?

[valchanov]

This is a model of the skull, with most of the foramens on the basis cranii and highly detailed nasal cavity. I made the same dataset also into a soft tissue model. I didn't include the inner ear. It's purpose -  surgical training, engineering benchmarks, CFD analysis, that kind of things. I'm selling it for morphological studies and, I'm proud to say, it's quite good the task. I can make a highly realistic model of your skull, heart, pelvis or whatever organ/s you like. but it will cost. If you give me your MRI, I can make the brain too... 

[Terrie S]

On 6/25/2020 at 1:32 AM, RCH said:

I want to have a life-sized human skull printed from DICOM files, and I'm wondering if the mandible can be printed separately, so that I can articulate them.  Has anyone heard of this being done?  Is it possible to somehow separate the DICOM files of skull and mandible, so they can be separately printed?  If so, what are my material options? 
BTW -- I recognize that a separate mandible is unlikely to stay in place on the skull, and that's fine; I'm capable of fabricating some method of holding it in place. 
Thank you in advance for any thoughts on the topic.

You don't need to create separate DICOM files for the skull and mandible. Depending on the overlap of the teeth, you can erase some of the segmentation in order to create gaps between the skull and mandible--if you are segmenting yourself. If you are uploading to democratiz3d, you can download the model and then either apply a plane cut in Meshmixer or if you want the actual articulations, you can "paint" the parts of the model to delete to create the necessary gaps, then repair the holes. Again, the difficulty would depend on whether you can separate the teeth on the maxilla from the mandible.

[vduke]

Hello! I am a biomedical engineer that works in 3D modelling and printing for craniofacial implants and surgeries. We segment and print these models daily from individual DICOMs. 

 

Are you looking for just two separate scans of the mandible and skull? Or the printed model itself?

 

 

[Dr. Mike]

If you want the two parts to articulate, you can insert a small metal hinge at the joint to facilitate the motion. Has anybody used a small hinge in this way to allow motion in a 3D printed model?

[valchanov]

10 hours ago, Dr. Mike said:

If you want the two parts to articulate, you can insert a small metal hinge at the joint to facilitate the motion. Has anybody used a small hinge in this way to allow motion in a 3D printed model?

The temporomandibular joint is extremely complicated one, a simple hinge won't simulate the movements in the axes properly. A whole system of hinges and strings is needed. For simple demonstration purposes,  the neodymium magnets works great. 

[Dr. Mike]

I like the magnet idea!

[RCH]

On 7/23/2020 at 11:02 AM, vduke said:

Are you looking for just two separate scans of the mandible and skull? Or the printed model itself?

I'm sorry if I didn't state my original post clearly.  I don't need scans; I have the DICOM files for a specific person, and I want to have the cranium and mandible printed from them.  But thank you anyway.

 

 

 

[RCH]

On 7/16/2020 at 4:45 AM, tsehrhardt said:

Thank you for that information, tsehrhardt.

 

Since I neither have nor know how to use a 3-D printer, I assumed that I was going to pay someone else to do the printing for me.  I'm afraid that using specialized software is beyond me at this point (although buying and learning to use a 3-D printer are on my list of things I want to do in the next few years).

I think I could probably do the handwork of separating teeth (I'm reasonably proficient with a rotary tool), but the part that I'm concerned about is the TMJ.  I presumed that if I had the entire skull printed, that area would be solid, and then I'd have to figure out how to separate the mandible.  That's why I thought that printing the cranium and mandible separately would make the most sense.  But again -- I'm a newbie in this world.

 

 

"You don't need to create separate DICOM files for the skull and mandible. Depending on the overlap of the teeth, you can erase some of the segmentation in order to create gaps between the skull and mandible--if you are segmenting yourself. If you are uploading to democratiz3d, you can download the model and then either apply a plane cut in Meshmixer or if you want the actual articulations, you can "paint" the parts of the model to delete to create the necessary gaps, then repair the holes. Again, the difficulty would depend on whether you can separate the teeth on the maxilla from the mandible."

 

[RCH]

On 6/27/2020 at 4:06 AM, valchanov said:

Thanks, valchanov

 

I don't need any of the interior anatomy of the cranium; this isn't for teaching.  Things like sinuses, foramina, etc., are irrelevant for this project.  All I need is for the external morphology to be true to the DICOM files, and for the mandible to be separate so I can articulate it.  Is that the sort of thing you can do?  If so, would you mind letting me know the approximate costs (by private message is fine)?



This is a model of the skull, with most of the foramens on the basis cranii and highly detailed nasal cavity. I made the same dataset also into a soft tissue model. I didn't include the inner ear. It's purpose -  surgical training, engineering benchmarks, CFD analysis, that kind of things. I'm selling it for morphological studies and, I'm proud to say, it's quite good the task. I can make a highly realistic model of your skull, heart, pelvis or whatever organ/s you like. but it will cost. If you give me your MRI, I can make the brain too...