Know What To Expect From M&G

An Ocularist is a highly trained specialist who carefully fits, designs, and hand-crafts custom ocular prostheses (artificial eyes). To ensure the highest clinical standards and precise prosthetic design, we strongly recommend patients always seek care from a Board Certified Ocularist.

A Board Certified Ocularist is a medical professional who has completed the comprehensive, rigorous clinical training required by the American Society of Ocularists (ASO) and subsequently achieved certification by passing the peer-reviewed examinations of the National Examining Board of Ocularists (NEBO).

An ocular prosthesis is a custom-molded, medical-grade plastic shape designed to fit comfortably into the eye socket following an enucleation (surgical removal of the natural eye). Beyond restoring a life-like, confident aesthetic appearance, a custom prosthesis supports natural tissue structure and restores near-natural anatomical volume and eyelid motility.

A scleral shell is a precision-engineered, incredibly thin prosthetic shell designed to fit smoothly over an existing blind, damaged, or phthisical (shrunken) globe. It matches the appearance of your companion eye without requiring surgical removal of the natural globe.

An ocular prosthesis cannot restore lost vision. However, many patients uniquely report that wearing a properly aligned prosthesis improves their psychological perception of overall vision and spatial confidence from their remaining sighted eye.

We recommend a custom prosthesis be structurally replaced every 3 to 5 years. This timeframe accounts for natural, subtle tissue updates within the orbital structure over time, ensuring a continually comfortable and anatomically correct fit.

We recommend having your prosthesis professionally resurfaced and cleaned by an ocularist every 6 to 12 months, depending on your body's natural protein buildup. During this appointment, we polish away micro-scratches, evaluate tissue health, and determine if any physical adjustments are needed.

A conformer is a smooth plastic surgical shell temporarily placed inside the eye socket immediately following surgery. Its primary role is to maintain the critical shape of the orbit and prevent tissue contraction during the initial healing process before your final prosthesis is designed.

An expansion conformer is an advanced, therapeutic conformer utilized in a graduated series of increasing sizes to gently enlarge a microphthalmic or contracted eye socket over time. These are most frequently used to guide proper orbital development in infants or to reconstruct sockets that have experienced severe scar tissue contracture.

An ocular implant is a permanent sphere surgically placed inside the socket's muscle cone during an enucleation procedure. The implant permanently replaces lost volume, provides deep structural support, and anchors the natural eye muscles to maximize the lifelike movement of your overlying custom prosthetic eye.

To help you navigate daily care easily, most custom prostheses are crafted with a tiny orientation marking located at the absolute top edge—typically a small colored dot, your practitioner's initials, or a set of production numbers.

Protecting your remaining eye is our absolute priority. We strongly suggest all patients wear specialized, shatter-resistant glasses constructed with high-impact **polycarbonate lenses** for all daily activities to completely safeguard their healthy eye.

We specialize in custom-fitting and hand-fabricating a complete suite of facial prosthetics, including custom **orbital (eye area), auricular (ear), nasal (nose)**, and highly complex **hemifacial or midfacial prostheses** to restore natural contours following trauma or oncology surgeries.

Most maxillofacial prostheses are hand-sculpted from advanced, medical-grade silicone matched to your skin tone and texture. When an orbital reconstruction requires an artificial eye component, that specific portion is independently manufactured using medical, heat-cured acrylic for a glass-like finish.

Retention depends entirely on your unique anatomy. Most orbital and facial prostheses are secured daily using specialized, biocompatible medical-grade adhesives. Where surgically applicable, we also craft highly advanced implant-retained (osseointegrated magnetic/bar) prostheses, pressure-fit designs, or undercuts that sit comfortably within natural tissue contours.

In most instances, a complete custom build requires **4 to 5 tailored clinical appointments**. These visits are longer than standard doctor appointments because each prosthesis is entirely hand-sculpted, dynamically color-matched, and individually custom-painted right in our studio while you sit with us.

A well-maintained medical silicone prosthesis typically retains its premium texture, structural edges, and color for **2 to 3 years**. Due to changing seasonal skin tones or natural facial tissue maturation, fine-tuning adjustments or standard structural remakes may be requested sooner.

Coping with ocular changes is a deeply emotional journey. We highly recommend reading independent patient guides like **“Lost Eye”** or **“A Singular View.”** These renowned resources offer invaluable practical tips, lifestyle guidance, and deep emotional support from individuals who have successfully walked this exact path.