Custom prosthetic rehabilitation of ocular defects with a digital workflow

Purpose To use digital technologies, including high-resolution imaging, computer-aided design (CAD), and three-dimensional (3D) printing, to introduce a streamlined process by enabling rapid, reproducible, and cost-effective digital fabrication of orbital prostheses, thereby addressing the limitations of conventional manual prostheses, which remain labor-intensive, poorly reproducible, and often fail to achieve optimal marginal adaptation. Materials and methods This study presented a digital workflow for silicone orbital prostheses fabrication, combining CT-derived 3D reconstruction, reverse engineering, and stereolithography to produce customized silicone prostheses with 3D-printed photocurable resin negative molds. Mimics 10.01 software was used for 3D reconstruction, and defect margin delineation and prosthesis design were performed using Geomagic Studio 2013 software. Results The resulting prostheses demonstrated favorable facial symmetry, accurate skin color matching, excellent fit, and high wearing comfort, representing a promising approach to enhance the quality of life of our patients. This approach minimized reliance on extensive manual labor, facilitated archiving and reproduction, and offers satisfactory efficiency and esthetic outcomes, thereby providing a practical alternative for orbital rehabilitation. Conclusion The digital workflow described herein established an efficient and systematic procedure for the fabrication of silicone orbital prostheses.