https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-21/new-3d-printing-technology-revolutionising-artificial-eyes/102496524

This is interesting (to me, anyway). There are very few people in Australia who make artificial eyes. I think there is/was only one in Victoria. It’s an amazing skill. I am wondering why there is not more use of laminating a photo of the patient’s eye inside the thing. You would still need to hand paint the blood vessels on the white of the eye. Many, many years ago in the early days of digital cameras, I photographed a patient’s eye and sent the photo to a specialist contact lens fabricator to make a coloured contact lens to disguise a badly scarred cornea. It worked well. Although we did have to tweak the colour a bit initially. But after that, we just ordered a new one when needed.

buffy said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-21/new-3d-printing-technology-revolutionising-artificial-eyes/102496524

This is interesting (to me, anyway). There are very few people in Australia who make artificial eyes. I think there is/was only one in Victoria. It’s an amazing skill. I am wondering why there is not more use of laminating a photo of the patient’s eye inside the thing. You would still need to hand paint the blood vessels on the white of the eye. Many, many years ago in the early days of digital cameras, I photographed a patient’s eye and sent the photo to a specialist contact lens fabricator to make a coloured contact lens to disguise a badly scarred cornea. It worked well. Although we did have to tweak the colour a bit initially. But after that, we just ordered a new one when needed.

How does an artificial eye get worn/damaged/used enough to require replacement?

Spiny Norman said:

buffy said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-21/new-3d-printing-technology-revolutionising-artificial-eyes/102496524

This is interesting (to me, anyway). There are very few people in Australia who make artificial eyes. I think there is/was only one in Victoria. It’s an amazing skill. I am wondering why there is not more use of laminating a photo of the patient’s eye inside the thing. You would still need to hand paint the blood vessels on the white of the eye. Many, many years ago in the early days of digital cameras, I photographed a patient’s eye and sent the photo to a specialist contact lens fabricator to make a coloured contact lens to disguise a badly scarred cornea. It worked well. Although we did have to tweak the colour a bit initially. But after that, we just ordered a new one when needed.

How does an artificial eye get worn/damaged/used enough to require replacement?

The socket can change with time so the fit changes. They should be reviewed by the maker every few years or so. If it gets loose, it can fall out and get damaged that way. But you are right, in general an artificial eye will last quite a long time. The plastic does degrade with time too. UV exposure and plastic and all that.

Thanks, that makes perfect sense.

They are a removeable prosthesis. You take it out and clean it at night and you have to keep your eye socket healthy.

It’s an interesting article, ta.

Here’s the world’s oldest known prosthetic eye, made for a woman in what is now southern Iran 5000 years ago.

>A 3 cm, hemispherical artefact made from bitumen and animal fat, the first known prosthetic eye in the archaeological record, dating between 2900 and 2800 BC.

….This object was not created for the burial. Microscopic abrasions in the socket both where the eye would sit, and also where the thread would have been, show that she wore the prosthesis regularly, and for some considerable time. An abscess in her left orbital ridge has led investigators to believe that the prosthesis caused an infection in her eyelid due to long-term contact.

Golden-eye and the Burnt City: The earliest known ocular prosthesis from the city of Shahr-i Sokhta