Comparative Study of patient individual implants from β‐tricalcium phosphate made by different techniques based on CT data

Bone substitution or bone augmentation with synthetic materials (e. g. β‐tricalcium phosphate materials, β‐TCP) is usually done by standardized material shapes: block materials can be individually shaped by the surgeon for the specific defect situation. Granular materials are used for more complicated and hardly accessible defect situations. The granulate is mixed with blood. Also injectable putty materials are available. The disadvantage is that none of these material modifications can guarantee a complete and strong press fit contact to the surrounding bone in complicated defect situations, which is essential for a complete and successful bone regeneration. The treatment of complicated defects where mechanical stability is necessary but not viable with a granular material (e. g. large mandibular defects) is therefore difficult. Especially defects where surgeries have a longer planning horizon (e. g. bone tumours, cysts) can be treated with custom made patient individual implants. CT data can be converted to three dimensional CAD/CAM data for shaping or prototyping the implant. For a manufacturer of bone augmentation materials also economical questions are necessary to solve for the decision, whether this technology can be an interesting possibility for the treatment of defect situations as described above. Two different techniques for making patient individual implants from β‐tricalcium phosphate with three‐dimensional fabrication methods were experimentally realised and estimated. Custom made porous scaffolds were produced by using conventional shaping techniques as well as rapid prototyping methods.