Artificial eyes.. are designed in Egypt locally and resemble a healthy eye

In Egypt, prosthetic eyes are designed locally, which gives hope to many patients with their eyes to receive the necessary care inside the country without the need to travel abroad.

Hisham Ezzat, director of one of the companies producing artificial eyes, explains that the eye is the most prominent organ in the human body, because it is responsible for seeing the world, and it is the mirror that reflects human feelings of joy, anger, and others.

Ezzat explained to Sky News Arabia the reasons for the need to resort to prosthetic eyes:

• The eye is endowed by God with superior protection through the bones of the skull, eyelashes, eyelids and eyebrows.
• Eye loss has many causes, including incomplete development of the eye in the womb before birth, as well as tumors, accidents, and others.
• Loss of an eye causes psychological pain to a person, and affects his ability to interact with the society around him.
• To preserve the human psyche, it has been achieved to manufacture semi-natural artificial eyes, which work to compensate him for the aesthetic form he has lost.
• The ancient Egyptians made the artificial eye from colored stone and placed it for the mummies.
• The artificial eye industry has evolved over time, as it was made of glass in Germany after World War II, to replace the eyes that soldiers lost in order to rehabilitate them for society.
• The material from which artificial eyes are made in the world at the present time is acryl (polymethyl acrylate), which is what dentures are made of, after being chemically treated so that it does not cause allergies or harm to humans.

The stages of installing the artificial eye are as follows:

• The doctor drains the affected eye and installs a ball.
• Within a month, the measurements are taken and the appropriate eye is manufactured.
• The technician designs the outer shape that covers this ball.
• The artificial eye can be installed over the injured natural eye without emptying it, after conducting an experiment on the extent of the eye’s ability to do so.
  Measurements are taken of the affected eye in size compared to the healthy eye, as well as in terms of color.
• Artificial eyes are designed in Egypt using a three-dimensional system using a healthy eye print, and the patient does not need to travel abroad or import artificial eyes because they are made inside the country and with Egyptian hands.
• The artificial eye is a piece of art that is made specifically for each case separately, because we need to take the shape of the natural eye in terms of its color and size in proportion to the other eye, and it ensures that the person interacts with the environment around him in an almost natural way.

Regarding the most important advantages of artificial eyes for the eyeless, Hisham explains:

• Restore the aesthetic shape of the human being.
• It changes the psychological state of a person for the better and helps his interaction with the outside world.
• Preserves the bone of the skull and eyelids from atrophy.
• The artificial eye can raise the eyelids of the injured eye in case it falls.

According to Hisham Ezzat, the most important precautions that must be taken when installing artificial eyes are:

• Intensive care of the artificial eye, and cleaning it continuously at least once a week with special cleaning materials.
• Make sure to sleep with the artificial eye continuously, so that the skull bone and eyelids are not exposed to atrophy, especially for newborns until adulthood.
• Review the case with the specialized technician every 6 months to take care of it, and do maintenance for the artificial eye once at the beginning of summer and once at the beginning of winter, as the change in weather leads to the presence of secretions and roughness in the artificial eye.
• Review the attending physician at least once every 3 months to check the condition of the eye from the inside.
• Not to remove the artificial eye continuously to stabilize its condition internally and externally.
• Resorting to specialists in this field and not relying on advertising, and testing the material with which the artificial eye is manufactured with high accuracy by asking the specialist doctor, who in turn directs the case to the artificial eye design center that he trusts.
• Refer to the doctor in the event of any symptoms appearing on the prosthetic eye such as tears, secretions and infections, because the doctor is the only one who can treat these symptoms, and here the role of the attending physician must be separated from the role of the technician who designs and manufactures the eye.