SINGAPORE: For those who have lost one or both of their eyes, the work of the only ocularist at the National University Hospital gives hope and confidence, allowing patients to avoid the stares of others.
Each eye prosthesis takes about three to four days to make, she added, with a thorough process that involves making several models and hand painting the finer details of the eye.Making eye prostheses is"an art and a science", said Ms Suriya, who trained in India for two months to become an ocularist. She was previously an imaging specialist with the ophthalmology department."You need to have a deep empathy for patients, great patience and also an eye for detail.
When attempts to save an eye fail, patients often “seek relief” from the pain and disfiguration, by opting for removing their eyeballs and replacing it with an implant in the eye socket. An ocular prosthesis is then placed to restore patients to “their structural, aesthetic and psychosocial normal status”, said Dr Sundar.Ms Suriya has seen patients as young as 18 months old, and as old as 85 years old. One patient who has benefited from Ms Suriya’s work is Claire Lim.
Ms Suriya with patient Claire Lim, demonstrating how she usually uses a suction tool to remove an artificial eye, or ocular prosthesis. “But when she got her prosthesis and she walked about in school, people found that Claire looks normal. So everybody tried to play with her. Teachers also noticed she was more confident in kindergarten, which was where she suffered the most.”The patient is usually around for the whole process of making an ocular prosthesis. The first step is taking an impression of the patient's eye socket. An alginate solution is first injected into the eye socket using a syringe.