Case report- Eye prosthesis for a 12-year old child
INTRODUCTION: Any form of defect adversely affecting the aesthetics hampers child’s physical, psychological and social well-being. The loss of an eye is a defect which reduces child’s self-confidence and overall quality of life and hence the prosthetic rehabilitation of an ocular defect is important not only to restore facial aesthetics, but also to provide psychological healing.
CASE REPORT: This case report presents the fabrication of a custom-made ocular prosthesis for a 12-year-old boy who reported to the OPD of Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry with the chief complaint of facial disfigurement because of missing right eye since 8 years. After thorough examination, the rehabilitation of the child was done with an ocular prosthesis, fabricated by combination of custom and stock ocular prosthesis.
DISCUSSION: The custom-made eye prosthesis helped retain shape of defective socket, prevented collapse of lids, maintained palpebral opening and provided a gaze that was similar to that of the natural eye and lead to an improvement in physical, psychological and facial aesthetics.
CONCLUSION: The technique described in this report is straight-forward, simple and cost-effective. Although the patient is not able to see using this prosthesis, it has increased the self-confidence of the child to face the world.
Images:
Figure 1- Pre-operative photograph of ocular defect
Figure 2- Intra-operative photographs of clinical steps
Figure 3- Post-operative photograph