{"id":9428,"date":"2026-10-27T15:01:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T09:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/?p=9428"},"modified":"2026-10-27T15:01:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T09:16:14","slug":"3d-printing-in-healthcare-from-imagination-to-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/?p=9428","title":{"rendered":"3D Printing in Healthcare: From Imagination to Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Prof. Dr. Dashrath Kafle<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is the Director of Dental Programs, Professor in Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopaedics, Dhulikhel Hospital. He is a Specialist Orthodontist with advanced training on Lingual Orthodontics, Cleft Orthodontics, TMD, Clear Aligner Technology, TADs and Digital Dentistry. Apart from Clinical Dentistry, he is actively involved in development of Dental products and Medical 3D printing at Dhulikhel Hospital.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The history of 3D printing dates back to the early 1980s, when researchers began developing technologies that could create physical objects directly from digital designs. Dr. Hideo Kodama, an automobile engineer from Japan, is credited for developing the first 3D printer in year 1981. He developed a 3D printer using light curing resin. A major breakthrough came in 1984, when American engineer Chuck Hull developed stereolithography (SLA), a process that uses ultraviolet light to cure liquid photopolymer layer-by-layer. During the late 1980s and 1990s, other technologies emerged, including Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), expanding the range of printable materials and applications. This has expanded the varieties of materials and application in 3D printing world. Hull later founded 3D Systems, which introduced one of the first commercial 3D printers. Initially used mainly for industrial prototyping, 3D printing gradually became more affordable and accessible with the expiration of patents. The technology subsequently expanded into medicine, dentistry, aerospace, automotive manufacturing, architecture, education, and consumer products. Today, 3D printing has evolved from a rapid-prototyping technique into an important digital manufacturing technology, capable of producing highly customized and complex structures in materials ranging from plastics and ceramics to metals and biocompatible materials. 3D printers ranges from small amateur printers to highly precise medical printers.

3D printing has applications across a wide range of fields, from healthcare and dentistry to engineering, manufacturing, architecture, and education. The newer avenues of 3D printing application are evolving every year. In healthcare industry, it is used to produce customized prostheses, implants, surgical guides, anatomical models, and tissue-engineering scaffolds. In dentistry, 3D printing is increasingly used for clear aligners, dental models, surgical guides, crowns, dentures, and orthodontic appliances. Recently very small size 3D printers have evolved which are used in dentistry. They have the precision of less than 5 micron which is major breakthrough in this technology.

Industries use the 3D printing technology for rapid prototyping, customized components, and complex parts that are difficult to manufacture using conventional methods. It is also being explored in construction, aerospace, automotive manufacturing, and even food production. The ability to create highly customized products quickly with less material waste and without expensive tooling, makes 3D printing an important technology for the future. Recently many hobbyist 3d printer technicians have changed their profession into full time 3D printing. Even the young people are adopting this technology for their projects. The reason for 3D printing to be popular is saving time: thanks to rapidly developing technologies. Apart from this they are cost effective and take less foot prints.

3D printing is transforming modern medicine and dentistry beyond the imagination. It was impossible to imagine that 3D printing will move so fast in terms of medical application. The application of 3D printing is being done to produce patient-specific models, implants, prostheses, and surgical tools. More interestingly, patients’ CT and MRI scans can be used to produce patient-specific devices. The DICOM data from these scans are used to develop 3D models which are used for diagnosis, treatment planning and later for treatment execution as well. The difference between customized and readily available medical appliances is that customized devices are more fitting and precise in nature. They will exactly match the individuals\u2019 anatomy and morphology. This will not only improve the fit into patients\u2019 body, but also improve the function as well. 3D printing is extensively being used to manufacture surgical guides, orthopedic and cranial implants, cutting guides, hearing aids and wide varieties of dental and maxillofacial appliances.

Dentistry is one of the early adopter of this technology. In 1997, clear aligners were produced by virtually correcting the malocclusion and printing series of models for fabricating appliances. Those STL models were thermo-pressed to produce clear aligners called INVISALIGN.

Later once 3D printing technology became commonly available and affordable, more and more applications are evolving. The widely used applications are surgical planning, patient-specific surgical guides, dental crowns and bridges, maxillofacial prosthesis, bite splints and mouth guards. More recently 3D printing and milling technology is being used to develop patient-specific Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ).

3D printed surgical guides help us to precisely put the surgical drills without any iatrogenic errors. This is one of the major advancements in medical 3D printing. The patient outcome as well as surgical outcome is very predictable. The combination of digital imaging, CAD\/CAM, and 3D printing reduces manual laboratory steps, minimizes material waste, shortens production time, and allows to deliver patient-specific treatment in probably shorter period of time than conventional. This is the reason, these days many dentists practice single-visit dentistry or same-day dentistry. Thanks to 3D printing. With the technology moving forward, development of stronger and biocompatible materials, the future of dental application seems to be promising.
In medicine and dentistry, bioprinting is in great hype at the moment. It is the process of very advanced form of 3D printing that uses living cells, biomaterials and biological molecules to create tissue like structures. This is very promising and amazing technology for the future generation. In the near future with the help of bioprinting, doctors\/ medical specialists will be able to print skin layers, bones, cartilages and blood vessels. The future has no limits. In dentistry, bioprinting has already been experimentally applied to regenerate gum tissues, pulp, bone and dentine.

The global status of medical 3D printing has already moved from prototype stage to application stage. Orthopedics and Dentistry are most commonly using these technologies. The CT scans and MRI data are used to 3D visualize the condition and printing the actual anatomy. Furthermore, these data are used to customize patient-specific appliance for treatment purpose with excellent outcome. Currently, FDA has approved more than 100 appliances for medical\/dental uses. The application of AI in 3D printing is evolving a lot and the future is promising.

3D printing in Nepal is still in infancy but in rapidly developing stage. There are numerous amateur 3D printers available in Nepali market which means that people have started 3D printing. There are probably very few institutions that have started medical 3D printing facility at their center. Probably, Dhulikhel Hospital is the first Hospital which initiated 3D printing technology in Nepal. We at Dhulikhel Hospital started medical 3D printing in 2019.

Initially started from dental department to fabricate clear aligners and temporary prosthesis, this technology expanded slowly to different other departments. Among them maxillofacial, orthopedic and neurosurgery departments are the pioneers in 3D printing. They have been applying 3D printing technology for day to day surgeries.

Orthopedic and Spine surgery department is using 3D printing service for diagnosis and treatment planning of their surgery. Maxillofacial surgery department is planning the surgeries virtually on 3D models and then fabricating surgical guides and patient-specific appliances for the treatment. Similarly, the dental department is using this technology for invisible braces, prosthesis and patient-specific night guards. Neurosurgery department is using this technology to fabricate patient-specific cranial implants. Apart from these applications, we are using 3D printing for printing DIY products as well.


In coming days, we are planning to develop 3D printing service into a full-fledged department. We are planning to start wheelchair and hearing aid production in near future.

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Prof. Dr. Dashrath Kafle He is the Director of Dental Programs, Professor in Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopaedics, Dhulikhel Hospital. He is a Specialist Orthodontist with advanced training on Lingual Orthodontics, Cleft Orthodontics, TMD, Clear Aligner Technology, TADs and Digital Dentistry. Apart from Clinical Dentistry, he is actively involved in development of Dental products …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":9429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[39,107,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-feature","category-flash-news","category-in-the-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/medicosnext.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/3D-printing-scaled.png?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9431,"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9428\/revisions\/9431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}