3D printing has been hailed as a disruptive technology which will change manufacturing. Used in aerospace, defence, art and design, 3D printing is becoming a subject of great interest in surgery. The technology has a particular resonance with dentistry, and with advances in 3D imaging and modelling technologies such as cone beam computed tomography and intraoral scanning, and with the relatively long history of the use of CAD CAM technologies in dentistry, it will become of increasing importance. Uses of 3D printing include the production of drill guides for dental implants, the production of physical models for prosthodontics, orthodontics and surgery, the manufacture of dental, craniomaxillofacial and orthopaedic implants, and the fabrication of copings and frameworks for implant and dental restorations. This paper reviews the types of 3D printing technologies available and their various applications in dentistry and in maxillofacial surgery.

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Bone is one of the most highly adaptive tissues in the body, possessing the capability to alter its morphology and function in response to stimuli in its surrounding environment. The ability of bone to sense and convert external mechanical stimuli into a biochemical response, which ultimately alters the phenotype and function of the cell, is described as mechanotransduction. This review aims to describe the fundamental physiology and biomechanisms that occur to induce osteogenic adaptation of a cell following application of a physical stimulus. Considerable developments have been made in recent years in our understanding of how cells orchestrate this complex interplay of processes, and have become the focus of research in osteogenesis. We will discuss current areas of preclinical and clinical research exploring the harnessing of mechanotransductive properties of cells and applying them therapeutically, both in the context of fracture healing and de novo bone formation in situations such as nonunion. Cite this article: Bone Joint Res 2019;9(1):1–14.