14 DAY TRIAL // Paralysis might not be something treatable with orthotics, but prostheses are another matter, and they can be used to replace lost/amputated limbs as well. Two men have decided to offer both types of products to their patients.
Tyler Dunham and Tyler Manee are two specialists who craft orthotics and prosthetics according to the prescriptions of doctors.
After all the time they have spent doing such work, they have begun to use 3D printing technology in their creations.
What they now wish for is to make 3D printed orthotic and prosthetic devices accessible to their patients. The crowdfunding campaign posted on Kickstarter is meant to find a method that will enable that.
3D Printing lower-limb prosthetics and orthotics
Orthotics are braces and brace-like supports which correct certain defects in people's limbs and joints, or compensate for some shortcoming, birthed or gained through an accident, illness or other incident.
Prosthetics come in when orthotics can't take care of the problem, replacing limbs with artificial ones. They aren't perfect replacements, especially if they lack motorized parts, but they always change a life for the better.
3D printing technology is like the ambrosia of the Gods when it comes to such things. With amazing consistency, it has proven capable of not only yielding superior models but doing it in a fraction of the time (a very small fraction) and without eating nearly as much money.
To illustrate this, the first 3D printed prosthetic hand was made in hours (days if you count the design phase) instead of weeks, and cost fifty dollars instead of a fifty thousand dollar model that would have barely matched it.
Tyler and Tyler have already performed independent study of 3D printing (since it's not something taught in school, at least not yet) for two years and believe they can help their patients better now.
They need some money to get started, however, which is where the crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter comes in. The goal is of $9,000 / €7,780, and with almost a third of it covered in just 2 days, we're pretty sure they'll get all they need.
This is a first in the industry
While 3D printing technology has been used for prosthetics and orthotics in the past, this is the first time we see an orthotists and prosthetists practice so fully and openly embracing 3D printing as a primary way of doing its job.
Tyler and Tyler (well, really Dunham and Manee, but repetition has a certain charm) will focus on lower-body amputees, since those are the most numerous.
