An example mold fitting on top of the CAD model of a mouth with a cleft palate
A cleft palate is an opening or split in the roof of the mouth that occurs when the tissue doesn't fuse together during development in the womb. A cleft palate often includes a split (cleft) in the upper lip (cleft lip) but can occur without affecting the lip (Mayo Clinic).
An example mold with the script that I created
This was one of the hardest projects I have ever done, it took me over a month to finish it. I had to create a script in Rhino 3D to reduce the amount of time physicians spent making a mold for a child after surgery. The mold created is customized based on the patients mouth and the varying degree of missing tissue. I orginally tried doing this in Fusion 360 but figured out that it was too complicated and Fusion did not have the tools I needed in order to properly make the script. I decided to switch to Rhino 3D, however it took me a lot longer because I had little to no experience in Rhino. On top of the fact that I had to make this script, I also had to learn the how to use the software. After learning Rhino, I had to figure out how I can manually make this mold before trying to automate this process. After figuring out the process of creating the mold, the script came pretty easily.
