In operations described as groundbreaking, doctors in the Northern Cape have implanted 3D-printed titanium jaws into patients who lost their jaws to cancer.

The procedure has been done just once in the world and it’s a first for South Africa, according to an eNCANews video. The jaw was made using a 3D printer at the Central University of Technology’s Rapid Prototyping Center.

It uses titanium powder with a laser source and melds the implant layer by layer in a bio-compatible material. Doctors say it’s a step up from previous procedures that used the patients’ own bone to harvest a new jaw.

The procedure is expensive, doctors say, but they claim it will help patients regain at least 60 percent of jaw function while also salvaging facial features.

Doctors are monitoring the inaugural patients and the medical team is seeking funding to make more procedures possible.