This is an excerpt from a full article and video on the NZ Herald website, which can be viewed here:
A throat cancer sufferer has a new jaw, created with the help of innovative 3D printing techniques - the first Kiwi to benefit from the cutting-edge technology.
Jack Goodall, 78, underwent reconstruction surgery in March on an eroded jawbone from an infection after radiotherapy in 2009.
The Auckland man lived for years with chronic dental pain, taking antibiotics most weeks to stave off infections.
Finally, at the end of last year, specialist surgeons Zac Moaveni and Andrew Cho offered to operate on Goodall, removing a "moth-eaten" piece of his jaw and replacing it with part of his femur.
Cho and Moaveni worked with Swiss engineers to design and 3D print plastic polymer equipment that was sent to New Zealand for the surgery.
"I was living on antibiotics and had pain all the time. Now I can live my life," Goodall told the Herald on Sunday.