Patient wearing silicone prosthetic ear designed from milled ear form.

The COMPRU head and neck reconstruction unit at Misericordia Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta has dramatically enhanced the process for making facial prosthetics. Rather than spending tedious hours hand sculpting, the advanced facility is using Roland 3D scanning and milling devices to produce prosthetics that look even more realistic and fit better.

"Roland 3D technology has tremendous potential to impact the facial prosthetic field," said Rosemary Seelaus, COMPRU Anaplastologist. "It saves a significant amount of time compared to hand sculpting so that I can quickly establish form and position. I can focus on the final details that make the prosthesis realistic. The technology preserves my clinical energy for the patient."

MDX-650

The COMPRU team includes specialists in surgery, jaw and facial prosthetics, hearing, speech, dermatology, pathology, hyperbaric medicine, psychology, biomechanical engineering and radiology. Its members are leading edge providers of excellence in medical care, research and teaching. Seelaus is specially trained to make prostheses for the face with great realism and likeness to the natural anatomy.

Seelaus recently made a prosthetic for a man who lost his left ear. Before using Roland 3D technology, she would create a plaster cast from an impression taken of the patient's existing ear and use its mirror image as a guide for hand sculpting the ear from modeling wax. This process was both long and tedious.

Today, she scans the plaster cast of the patient's good ear with a Roland PIX-30, digitally mirrors the digital file and mills it with a Roland MDX-650. This gives her more time with the patient to assess the ear model for accuracy, form and position. She duplicates the model by hand in a softer, flesh-tone wax to finalize form and fit on the patient. The finished silicone prosthetic ear is ready to wear, showing every wrinkle and pore in the skin.

If the patient had elected to have the area surgically repaired, Dr. Gordon Wilkes (a plastic surgeon) would have made a plaster cast of his right ear and scanned it with a Roland 3D scanner. Then he would have digitally mirrored the digital file with 3D software and milled it with a Roland milling device. The resulting left-ear model would have served as a guide in surgery, saving time and improving accuracy.

For more photos and the complete gallery story, click here. For more information about COMPRU (Craniofacial Osseointegration & Maxillofacial Prosthetic Rehabilitation Unit) at Misericordia Community Hospital call (780) 930-5660, email compru@cha.ab.ca or visit the Web site at www.caritas.ab.ca/compru.