Tumors or trauma are frequently the cause of significant bone tissue damage. If removed or destroyed areas of the bone are too large for the body to heal on itself the defects are referred to as critical sized bone defects. In this case surgeons need to support the body by bridging the defect with a suitable implant to restore the natural function. Bioresorbable ceramics like tricalcium phosphate or hydroxy apatite have shown advantageous in the last decades when bone defect bridging is required, thanks to their osteoconductive behavior as well as their perfect biocompatibility. The idea is that osteoclastic cells resorb the artificial calcium phosphate implant slowly during the healing phase and osteoblastic cells can meanwhile build up new native bone tissue. Eventually, the whole artificial implant is resorbed and replaced by the patient’s own bone resulting in full restitution of functionality.. Patient-specific medical devices based on metals and polymers are currently on their way to becoming clinical standard. Additionally, to metals and polymers, high-performance ceramics and bioresorbable ceramics are also gaining more and more interest in medical engineering due to their unique material properties. 3D printing allows to produce complex and optimized shapes.[1]
Lithography-based Ceramic Manufacturing (LCM) is a technology based on liquid raw materials (ceramic particles in photocurable binder) cured layer wise with visible light by means of photopolymerization similar to digital light processing (DLP). The parts subsequently undergo a cleaning step followed by thermal debinding and sintering resulting in full ceramic components. The technology allows the production of highly accurate ceramic restorations with physical properties same or similar to conventional methods of production. [1,2]

Beside resorbable ceramics also other ceramic materials gain more and more interest in medical engineering. Lithium disilicate for the manufacturing of dental restorations because of it’s outstanding esthetical appearance [3], zirconia for producing orthopedic implants because of it’s strength and alumina-toughened zirconia (ATZ) as well as zirconia-toughened alumina (ZTA) for medical tools because of their wear resistance.
Within this presentation an overview about the possibilities and applications of additively manufactured ceramic parts for medical devices will be given. The advantages of 3D printed medical devices will be compared to conventional manufactured parts and finally an outlook to future applications will be given.[4]

References
[1] D. Bomze; Ceramic Applications, 2019, 7, 38-43.
[2] M. Schwentenwein; Int. J. Appl. Ceram. Technol.,2014, 12, 1-7.
[3] A. Unkovskiy; Materials, 2022, 15,6034-6040.
[4] J. Schweiger; Quintessenz Zahntechnik, 2022, 12, 1244-1250.