Magnesium implants that dissolve after healing work well for facial bone surgery, where exposed permanent plates cause infections, but fail for shoulder joints that need long-term stability. The key is matching how fast the material breaks down to what each body part demands.
Mauricio, what about CMF? Are there things in the CMF that you want to disappear over time?
Oh, everything in the face, everything that stays there is a problem. Like, I, I'm immediately thinking orthognathic surgery, mandible recon, all of those plates you need, you want them gone because the mucosa is very thin and it ends up, you end up seeing many of those plates again, which you don't want. So if the plate will disappear, that's actually great. That's the application we've been pondering around for a long time. It's patient-specific 3D-printed mandible plates and maxilla plates.
Hey Mauricio, so how hard would it be to use this material for like a custom glenoid for revision?
The problem with the custom glenoid is that you don't want the glenoid to disappear over time.