Many military combat injuries involve the head and neck. Often these injuries result in losses of noses, eyes, ears or jaws. These missing facial structures are no longer able to function, and they produce deformities in facial appearance. When lost facial structures cannot be corrected surgically, they are replaced by artificial prostheses. Head and face prostheses should reproduce lost structures to the finest detail, be color matched to the patient?s skin and feel like skin. Although currently used materials permit adequate color matching with skin, unfortunately they are very rigid, inflexible and do not feel like skin. New materials are needed to better replicate the flexibility, compressibility and feel of human facial skin. The goal of this research is to develop a new generation of flexible materials that will produce facial prostheses that feel like human facial skin. The project will rely on engineering optimization methods to help design and test new formulations that yield materials capable of reproducing specific properties of the human forehead, nose, chin, cheek and ear. Using physical property measurements previously obtained for these five areas of the face, flexible polymers (plastics) will be constructed in a manner that reproduces facial skin at these locations. Combinations of nanofillers, polymer molecular weight, crosslinker content and co-monomer mixtures will be optimized to achieve the project?s goal of developing new prosthetic materials. Successful completion of the project is expected to lead to products eventually becoming available to clinicians and anaplastologists.
Veterans are returning from combat with disfiguring head injuries caused by explosions, and older veterans undergo disfiguring surgery to treat head and neck cancer. Both groups require facial prostheses (noses, eyes, ears, etc.) to correct these defects. Facial prostheses are critical for restoring facial appearance, elevating self-esteem and integrating the veteran back into society. This research will develop new prosthetic materials that mimic skin properties at different locations on the face. This fully supports Rehabilitation R&D's stated purpose of sponsoring research that ?maximizes functional recovery.? The project has strong implications for translation into clinical practice through prosthetics, and it focuses on reintegrating veterans into all facets of civilian life. These objectives match those stated by Rehabilitation R&D as being key goals of this funding award.
