In a Queensland first, a 10-year-old Ipswich girl has had an ear reconstruction using a 3D printer.
Grace Smart was born with microtia, a condition that affects approximately one in 8000 babies.
It means her ear didn't fully develop in the womb, and she was born without the external part, which most of us would refer to simply as our "ear".
In December she underwent the marathon 12-hour operation after surgeon Dr Stuart Bade promised Grace she'd have a new ear for Christmas.
Six weeks on she was excited to start school, to see if her friends noticed the change in her appearance.
Grace's surgery marked the first time in Queensland 3D imaging and a 3D printer were used to develop a customised ear implant.
The process was made possible thanks to a 3D imaging machine purchased by funds raised by the Children's Hospital Foundation.
Grace's mum Debbie Smart says her daughter was reluctant to look in the mirror when the bandages were first removed.
But once she returned home from hospital, had looked in the mirror and was happy with what she saw, she called it "amazing".
"I wasn't even expecting like that good of an ear," Grace told 9News.
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