A team of doctors in South Korea has successfully implanted an artificial jaw created through three-dimensional printing technology, marking the first such operation in the country.

Doctors Lee Ui-lyong and Choi Young-jun at Chung-Ang University Hospital’s Department of Dentistry revealed on Thursday they had implanted the artificial jaw on a female Kazakh patient after she underwent surgery to remove a tumor.

The patient reportedly had to live with the tumor on the left side of her jaw for over ten years. 

The doctors said the patient would be able to live a normal life due to the surgery that implanted the titanium prosthetic jaw created via 3D printing and another operation aimed at relocating the lower and upper jaws to better match each other.

Lee said the surgeries were simulated on computers before the actual operations. Lee added that the 3D printer-created lower jaw would not cause side effects as it was made of titanium, allowing the patient to recover in a short period.

This latest report was published in the U.S. Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.