Terminology and Definitions
ACRYLIC: A plastic Methylmethacrylic Resin (PMMA)
ANTERIOR: The front or forward part of an object.
ANOPHTHALMIC: True absence of the eyeball.
BINOCULAR VISION: The ability to use the two eyes.
CONFORMER: A temporary clear prosthetic shell similar in shape of a reform prosthetic eye inserted after Enucleation or Evisceration.
CONJUNCTIVA: Mucous membrane tissue that is sutured over an implant to incase it into the orbit.
EMPIRICAL FITTING: Practical experience rather than theory.
ENUCLEATION: Complete surgical removal of the eyeball.
EVISCERATION: Surgical removal of the contents of the eyeball.
GLAUCOMA: An ocular condition in which there is a lost of visual function of the retina resulting from intraocular pressure.
HYDROXYAPATITE: Found in the harvested coral that is manufactured into an integrated ordital implant.
IMPLANT: A prosthetic device of acrylic or porous material that is surgically inserted within the scleral envelope of an eviscerated eye or the socket of an enucleated eye.
IMPRESSION FITTING: Duplication of an anophthalmic socket.
LIMBUS BLEND: Translucent edge of the cornea.
MICROPHTHALMOS: An abnormally small eyeball.
MONOCULAR: Pertaining to and affecting one eye
MOTILITY: Moving or having the power to move spontaneously.
NECROSIS: The death of tissue or tissue cells, especially in a circumscribed portion of the body, as in gangrene, and/or the changes which take place in the cells after they have died.
OCULARIST: One who fits and fabricates custom ocular prostheses.
OPHTHALMOLOGIST: A physician who is a specialist in the disease and defects of the eye and its appendages, and in medical/surgucal treatment of these disease.
POLYMETHYLMETHACRYLATE: Plastic polymer used in the manufacture of artificial eyes.
PROSTHESIS: Any artificial part of the body.
PROTEIN DEPOSITS: A surface build-up on the ocular prosthesis of dried secretions which can cause lid margin irritation.
PTOSIS: Prolapse or falling down of the top eyelid.
PTOSIS CRUTCH: A general term identifying the various modifications to the ocular prosthesis that are designed to support the upper lid.
RETINOBLASTOMA: A congenital malignant tumour, usually observed before the age of five.
SCLERA: The white of the eye.
SCLERAL/HAPTIC SHELL: A flush fitting, or minimum clearance, opaque acrylic scleral cover fitted over the phthisical or eviscerated glove. Iris, pupil, sclera tone and vascular details are matched to the companion eye.
SUCTION CUP: A rubber or silicone vacuum device used to remove the prosthesis.
ULCER, CORNEAL: Pathological loss of substances of the surface of the cornea due to progressive erosion and neurosis of the tissue.