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It's been a decade since 3D printing came to the prosthetics industry, and it still hasn't brought costs down.

From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech. I'm Megan McCarty Carrino.

Prostetic limbs can be pricey, 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 Britt Young, who uses a prosthetic arm,

and wrote about this recently for IEE Spectrum magazine. Around 10 years ago, people started

approaching me and asking me for my opinion on 3D printing,

because I've been wearing at the time prosthetic limbs or a prosthetic arm for my whole life.

And it was around 10 years ago when it started to enter the public consciousness as a

revolutionary way to cut costs and increase accessibility. You could,

potentially, out of your own garage, make your own high-tech, iron man-esque prosthetic limb,

and that would be a fraction of the cost than a conventionally available prosthetic limb.

And this is sort of kind of true.

Not quite true. A lot of these designs are not very durable. They're not very comfortable.

They are made of pretty cheap plastic. And obviously, they're not made by professionals, so they're not professionally fitted.

3D printing now is giving you more sophisticated sockets at the professional level at your prosthetist,

but it has yet to cut the costs.

...