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Dec 9, 2025

3D printing was supposed to disrupt prosthetic costs. It hasn’t.

Britt Young, writer and lecturer at UC Berkeley, explains why 3D printing has not brought down costs of prosthetic limbs.

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3D printing was supposed to disrupt prosthetic costs. It hasn’t.
Sabri Ben-Achour/Marketplace

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Prosthetic limbs can be expensive, costing thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. So the industry seemed ripe for disruption when 3D printing came along.

The technology requires little labor and uses economical materials. But the reality of 3D printing prosthetic limbs isn’t that straightforward, according to writer and University of California, Berkeley, lecturer Britt Young, who uses a prosthetic arm.

Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Young about why 3D printing has yet to bring down prosthesis costs.

More on this

The Complicated Reality of 3D Printed Prosthetics - from IEEE Spectrum

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