Major resections of bone tumors of the head and neck, owing to their small dimensions and their proximity to the or gans in this region, cause important functional and aesthetic problems that significantly compromise patients’ quality of life. Therefore, therapeutic planning should always extend beyond the resection to include functional and aesthetic re construction, preferably immediately. Microsurgical reconstruction represents a significant advance, but has not yet been perfected. Rapid prototyping (RP) comes as a new technology for the purpose of assisting the surgeon in the visual and tactile aspects of surgery, providing diagnostic accuracy and increasing the success of surgical planning. The au thors demonstrate the technological advances in the manufacture of customized mandibular prostheses with the assis tance of RP and practical applications of these methods.
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