POLOKWANE – Three children who lost their eyesight due to cancer will today receive artificial eyes thanks to Pretoria-based Ocularist Charmain van Druten-Luyt.
Druten-Luyt is in Polokwane today and will be based at the LimCare-Well hall and has encouraged anyone in need of an artificial eye to visit the hall and be assisted.
“There is a process of getting the eye muscles to adapt to the foreign material, but after a while these patients will be able to look everyone in the eye with confidence,” says Bobby were facilitator at the Tough Living with Cancer (TLC)-ward at the Pietersburg Provincial Hospital.
According to healthline.com, prosthetic eyes are a very common treatment option for someone who has lost an eye.
People of all ages and genders are fitted for prosthetic eyes after they have an eye (or in some cases, both eyes) removed due to a traumatic eye injury, illness, or eye or facial malformation.
The purpose of a prosthetic eye is to create a balanced facial appearance and increase comfort in the eye socket where the eye is missing.
Today, prosthetic eyes are no longer glass spheres. Instead, a prosthetic eye includes a porous round implant that’s inserted into the eye socket and covered with eye tissue called conjunctiva.
A thin, curved, glossy painted acrylic disk made to look like a natural eye — complete with an iris, pupil, white, and even blood vessels — is slipped onto the implant. The disk can be removed, cleaned, and replaced when needed.
For more information contact Bobby on 076 154 2008.
