Why you should give your grandparents a 3D printer for Christmas

By 2040, about is expected to have arthritis – a physical ailment making joint movements difficult and painful. In addition to their , arthritis patients often have additional needs that do not show up on medical bills and are not covered by insurance. For example, people with arthritic hands can find daily tasks like opening jars – or even eating with a spoon – to be cumbersome and painful. Many companies make and sell adaptive aids like and special handles that makes a toothbrush easier to hold. Some patients need dozens of these sorts of items, to help with various daily tasks. But those devices can be expensive – a , vastly more than a standard spoon in any shop.

Other assistive items like key holders and pill-splitters can help arthritis patients continue to live independently. Though many of these items are made of cheap plastic, the costs can be prohibitively high for poor people as well as better-off people living on fixed incomes. Research I participated in found that using free online designs and a basic 3D printer to make these assistive aids can of the cost of the commercially available products. A typical adaptive aid costs about $25; a 3D printed one costs about a dollar. That generates savings that add up to more than cover the cost of the printer itself.

There are dozens of adaptive aids that can be printed for pennies, helping with tasks like refueling a car, chopping vegetables and using scissors.

Our study technically and economically evaluated 20 fully free open-source designs for adaptive aids designed by Michigan Tech students and made available on and . This is just a with access to a 3D printer. People can download not just the designs for free, but also software that lets them adapt, personalize or customize the items for themselves or their loved ones.

We found that we could 3D print all 20 example adaptive aids for $20 – the cost of the plastic filament the 3D printer uses to make items. On the commercial market, the adaptive aids would cost over $20 each. A person, or family, who 3D printed 25 aids would save enough to more than pay for a – and a senior center that 3D printed another 50 could easily recoup the cost of a middle-range commercial desktop 3D printer.

Some people's insurance or Medicare plan does help pay for adaptive aids. But even then patients usually must pay a portion, with copays around . Our analysis found that even this group of patients would save significant amounts of money 3D printing their assistance items at home.

Arthritis is not just for old people. For example, professional tennis player was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at age 28, just a few weeks before the 2018 U.S. Open. Like most young people diagnosed with arthritis, she was shocked.

Younger people diagnosed with what is often viewed as an old person's disease may and want to limit the number of people who know about their condition. Those patients would no doubt be glad to save the money, but perhaps be even more interested in 3D printing because it would let them customize and build their aid items in the privacy of their own homes.

Consider, for example, the normally private act of clipping your toenails. Some people with arthritis find it difficult to do this with small nail clippers, so they get . Some might pay that attaches to a standard nail clipper, letting them cut their own nails at home. But a 3D printed handle costs about a dollar – a 97 percent savings.

Making adaptive aids using a 3D printer is particularly useful because of how easy it is to customize printed items for a person's hand size or personal aesthetic. The software programs that make and modify designs, and that control 3D printers, are ; in any case, many older people are technically adept. In fact, some of the for were made by a retired engineer.

Of course, not everyone is interested in buying the machinery or learning how to use it. In many communities there are volunteers who are willing to or medical conditions make what they need. The nonprofit group even takes requests online. Many and also offer machinery, software and knowledgeable helpers. Senior centers and medical offices may soon start offering similar services as well, helping people with arthritis help themselves every day.

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