Attachment of prosthetic ear to cranial implant abutments

Project Overview

Greg Gion of Medical Art Prosthetics is looking for a new attachment method for auricular prostheses. A new attachment method is desired because the current bar-clip method and the magnet-abutment method are either too strong or too weak, respectively. These methods compromise the effectiveness of the prosthetic ear to mask the patient’s deformity and they make the patient more prone to injury by damaging the underlying bone or tissue. Last semester the team designed and fabricated and attachment piece to be embedded in a silicone auricular prosthesis. This attachment fits the client’s needs only in ideal cases. The objective this semester is to modify the attachment method that was created last semester so that it works in almost all cases and to talk with companies to learn the possibility of manufacturing the device for market use.