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Orbital fractures are the most commonly encountered midfacial fractures, and usually, the fracture involves the floor and/or the medial wall of the orbit. This paper aims to present an innovative approach for primary and secondary reconstructions of fractured orbital walls through the use of computer-assisted techniques and additive manufacturing.

First, through the 3D anatomical modelling, the geometry of the implant is shaped to fill the orbital defect and recover the facial symmetry. Subsequently, starting from the modelled implant, a customised mould is designed taking into account medical and technological requirements.

The selective laser sintered mould is able to model and form several kind of prosthetic materials (e.g. titanium meshes and demineralised bone tissue), resulting in customised implants and allowing accurate orbital cavity reconstructions. The case study proved that this procedure, at the same time, reduces the morbidity on the patients, the duration of surgery and the related costs.

This innovative approach has great potential, as it is an easy and in-office procedure, and it offers several advantages over other existing methods.

The purpose of this study is to show how selective laser sintering (SLS) manufacturing of bioresorbable scaffolds is used for applications in bone tissue engineering.

Polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds were computationally designed and then fabricated via SLS for applications in bone and cartilage repair.

Preliminary biocompatibility data were acquired using human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) assuring a satisfactory scaffold colonization by hMSCs.

A promising procedure for producing porous scaffolds for the repair of skeletal defects, in tissue engineering applications, was developed.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate a method for comparing the scanning and reproducing accuracy of highly shaped objects like plaster casts used in dentistry.

Theoretical considerations on errors introduced by the scanning systems and subsequent point clouds data elaboration have led to a method to estimate the accuracy of the whole process. Suitable indices have been chosen and computed at each stage. As a final result, the overall chain, scanning and reproducing systems can be assessed. In order to validate the proposed method casts have been scanned by means of commercial systems and then reproduced by using different rapid prototyping technologies, materials and parameters. Error indices have been computed and reported.

Since it is not possible to define reliable and meaningful reference models for non‐standard shapes, an absolute accuracy value for the scanning process cannot be stated. Anyway the proposed method, thanks to relative performance indices, allows the comparison of different acquisition systems and the evaluation of the most performing manufacturing chain.

The study provides a method to assess the relative performance between commercial systems both in scanning and reproducing stage.

In literature, some studies on the accuracy of scanning devices have been found but they are based on standard geometrical features. In this paper, the problem of complex shapes in absence of reference model is addressed instead.