Tai Medina is getting ready for kindergarten, and his parents are trying to make sure he's ready. Tai, though, was born with Microtia and Atresia, a rare condition that left him without an ear canal or fully developed ear on his right side. While he already had a bone-conducting hearing aid to help his speech, Tai's parents worried about his entering his school years without what Tai really wanted: "a big ear." The Medinas received a flyer in the mail that led them to Paul Tanner at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. Tanner, an anaplastologist, creates prosthetics, and was brought in to make a prosthetic ear for his new, and youngest, patient. Tanner used a CT scan of Tai's left ear, flipped, to create a model that was 3D printed in the University of Utah's Marriott Library, which he then painted and fit to Tai. The ear turned out perfectly, and Tai will receive a new one about every two years as he grows. Find out more about this impressive prosthetic in the full article: http://3dprint.com/42341/utah-3d-pri...ar-4-year-old/


Below is a photo of Tanner fitting the ear to Tai: