Pediatrics

Children are among those patients that need an ocular prosthesis. This may be due retinoblastoma, anophthalmia, micro-ophthalmia, or childhood injury. Ensuring that the younger patients in our office feel comfortable and trusting of our staff is of the utmost importance to us. Learning and practicing with prostheses at a young age can be difficult for not only the patient but also for parents. We are here to help begin this journey in building confidence and striving for a happy lifestyle with your artificial eye. Our office has a playroom that allows the kids to have a space to relax away from the patient room. We also keep snacks on hand which the kids in our office really seem to enjoy.

Explaining your child’s eye to others can be difficult for you and them. We are here to help in making this transition fun and rewarding. With the expertise and personal experience of our Ocularists we feel confident that you and your child will leave our office feeling excited for the future.

Some of the fun things we have done in our office for our pediatric patients are, show them the Bill Nye the Science Guy episode that our Ocularist, Rebecca, was featured in; set them up with a pen-pal (other kids their age who also wear an artificial eye); and classroom visits.

We have created an art project that kids can do in the classroom after learning about artificial eyes and people who need them. The art project helps to allow the kids more time to think about what they have learned and take the information home for discussion with their parents. We feel that the classroom visit has been very beneficial for our pediatric patients in fielding questions from their peers.

What a great moment! Alec and Micah meeting. All smiles.

Pediatric Conformers

Infants born with congenital anophthalmia (the absence of the eyeball) or micro-opthalmia (an abnormally small eyeball) will often be referred to the Ocularist for expansion conformer therapy. It is very important for the Ocularist and Physician to work closely together in these cases. Conformer therapy prior to fabrication of ocular prostheses or scleral shells helps the sockets grow in conjunction with the child’s growth during these early months. We create a series of incrementally sized conformers that are worn by the infant. In the absence of the normal eyeball, the conformers produce the stimulation needed to “tell” the bony orbit to grow and they help to increase the size of the socket and help the lid structure in retention of the increasing sizes of the conformers. For this conformer therapy to be successful we need to work closely with the parents, as well, in increasing the size of the conformers at the appropriate intervals to keep up with their child’s growth. When the current conformer becomes more loosely fitting and the eyelids appear to look more closed, these are signs that your child is ready for the next increase in size of conformer. Once the conformers have increased adequate size of the socket, we are ready to make the switch from conformers to an ocular prosthesis or scleral cover shell. Your child’s physician may also choose surgical intervention at some point during this process.

Importance of eye protection

If you are a patient that wears one ocular prosthesis, protecting your good healthy eye should be very important to you. It is our recommendation that all monocular vision patients should wear glasses at all times that have polycarbonate lenses. Polycarbonate lenses are safety lenses. Safety glasses should be worn when using power tools, lab equipment including being around chemicals, performing tasks, doing chores or sports that may cause injury or harm to the good healthy eye.