Facial and body prosthesis.

THE word prosthesis means an artificial organ, such as an eye, nose, ear, hand, leg, or denture, which is used to replace an absent part of the body. It is logical to assume that most intelligent people are aware of the fact that artificial hair, legs, arms, eyes, and dentures exist. Much publicity has been given to tantalum and vitallium plates. However, most persons are less familiar with prosthetic noses, ears, and cosmetic gloves, which bear all the details, texture, and color of natural flesh. Furthermore, it is possible to cast or preshape chips of human bone in molds or dies and counter-dies for fitting into areas where bone has been lost through disease or accident. While such a bone graft is not really a prosthesis, the molds or dies and counter-dies are generally made by prosthetists. In reality, the prosthesis is not new. Artificial ears, noses, and eyes have been found on Egyptian mummies. The ancient Chinese used waxes and resins to reconstruct noses and ears. Tycho Brahe in the sixteenth century, after losing his nose in a battle, fashioned himself one out of silver and gold or a copper alloy. The London Medical Gazette of I832 reports a case of an entire chin being constructed of silver. Indeed, the prostheses of World War I were made by electroplating copper into plaster and wax molds and then coloring them. Needless to say, these prostheses were rigid, opaque, and a poor substitute for the soft, flexible, translucent and tough plastics used today. Prosthetics is sometimes confused with plastic surgery. The subjects are closely allied and are often used together on the same patient, as in equipping a patient with a tantalum plate. Nevertheless, they are entirely different fields. A prosthesis can be an aid to plastic surgery, and at times it is advisable to do plastic surgery to improve the appearance of a prosthesis. Plastic surgery is an ancient art. Over two thousand years ago the Hindus used nasal splints under the skin and developed methods of repair which even today are considered good operative procedures in