The jawbone was reconstructed from the patient’s 3D MRI and CT scans, making it a perfect fit in its new boney home.
This is a major step in the treatment of head and neck cancer, a disease which affects as many as 600,000 people every year. For most people, especially those whose cancer is caught early, the treatment is fairly minimal surgery, sometimes using lasers, or radiation therapy.
For some, though, more aggressive action is needed, and part of the lower jaw must be removed. As you might expect, this can have a massive impact on the patient’s life, since it renders them unable to speak, chew, and other essential actions – not to mention being quite noticeable from an aesthetic viewpoint.
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