Afternoon. Swish. Broken finger.

I was just playing basketball with some friends and then took a shot and knew something was off. My finger had gotten completely jammed and it HURT. I hurt the joint after the one that connects your finger to your hand (I fractured the proximal bone on my right ring finger). This was during lockdown so I really did NOT want to go to a hospital. My mom kindly wrapped my finger up to hold it straight, but I thought it to be super inefficient. It basically used the two adjacent fingers as supports for the middle one which hurt and so I lost mobility of 3 fingers for 1. I knew I could do better so I hopped on my laptop, looked for inspiration, and modeled a brace.

Print flat

First try on

Testing range of motion

I had to design it for the manufacturing methods available, which was exclusively 3D printing. It had to print flat because making it print in a 3d curved shape would take longer and be more complicated to model because I'd have to test many different shapes for comfort. Thus it became a flat part with lots of holes to make it less rigid. Since it lacked immense rigidity, when heated by a heat gun (or dipped in hot water), it became very malleable and so I could keep my finger over the brace and bend it, allowing it to form to my exact finger shape. This was the best part since it felt REALLY comfortable, I forgot it was there. I just added a quick velcro wrap to keep it held on tight. It kept the joint that was fractured extremely rigidly, while still having some mobility of the finger — it felt amazing and did its job perfectly.

After a couple days it became clear I had to go to the doctor for an x-ray and the doctor confirmed I had fractured that joint in my finger. He offered me a brace and then I showed him my one. He said he thought the one I made was just as good, if not better than the one he was going to prescribe. That felt awesome and validated my design. It would be four weeks wearing this and my finger is now perfect.

The project opened my eyes to biomedical engineering and how new manufacturing methods are going to make medical equipment more accessible in more areas. The brace he offered was relatively expensive without insurance (~50$), but I was able to make the same thing at home with my 3D printed for under 50 CENTS. I look forward to seeing how 3D printing will be applied in this field and what I can do to make it more accessible.