Traditional eyelid crutches be easily manufactured on a large scale, as they have to be customized for each patient. The crutch itself and the installment can range from $80-$100,
which may be a barrier for some patients, as it was for ours.
Additionally, alterations to existing crutches may be tedious as they have to be brought back to the optician.
To address these challenges, we used 3D design and printing to manufacture a more universal, removable and adjustable eyelid crutch for patients with ptosis. Here we used 3D printing to design and manufacture a new prototype for the eyelid crutch. Our crutch consists of two clips connected by a supporting arch and is made to attach onto the upper frame of a patient’s eyewear. Our goal was to design an eyelid crutch that can be used by many patients with different eyeglass frames.