Day 2 The Eye Is Complete

Here is the eye all painted, it still needs another layer of whatever the eye is made of and some buffing and polishing until it is complete. Prosthetic eyes are made of plastic polymer, they used to be made of glass until WWII. The glass they used to make them was supplied from Germany so obviously was no longer available at the time. Some doctors? (I don't remember if that's the profession or not) and dental technicians (I know I remember that one right) got together and developed this plastic polymer for making prosthetic eyes out of. It turns out this material is lighter, safer and more durable so obviously they never returned to making glass eyes after the war ended. The blood vessels of the eye were the most amazing part for me. See the red thread, the kind you can buy at any fabric store. This is what Gracie's vessels in her right eye are. He cut a small piece off and frayed it until it was very very thin and then put them onto the eye. Once those were on he used paint to finish up the sclera as no one's sclera is truly white.

Gracie and her ocularist once the eye is totally complete. Her prosthetic is her right eye, his is his left. I had to demonstrate that I was able to put it in myself before I was able to take it home. Plus I got a little lesson on prosthetic eye care. Basically I just leave it alone unless it comes out. If it comes out I clean it with baby shampoo as it leaves no residue and pop that puppy back in there. She has improved so much with letting me put her eye in. She didn't even really fight when I took my turn and put it in.

A close up of Gracie modeling her eye. Oh, and the eye was lighter yesterday. He said they always have to make the eye lighter to begin with and then they darken it as required. If the eye is too light it's easy to darken it, but if it's too dark you basically have to start again from scratch. I think it's a pretty good match in the end. The eye looks great, but I wish the movement was better. The ocularist says that will only improve over the years. She still has swelling around the eye that could last for another year, as well as she grows into the implant better (remember they put in an adult sized implant so that they wouldn't have to repeat the surgery as she grows older) the prosthesis will suction to the implant more and allow better movement.