Living With an Ocular Prosthesis By J.W. Sibley At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

After returning home from having an ocular prosthesis created, many people encounter situations that raise questions they hadn’t thought to ask their eye doctor or ocularist in advance. Most answers are provided through trial and error, but some of the most common concerns can be addressed in advance.

One of the most frequently asked questions of new wearers of artificial eyes is, “Will my eye ever fall out?” The answer is that this is highly unlikely. A modern ocular prosthetic is custom fitted to your eye socket by a skilled ocularist and held in place by the eyelid. Most day-to-day activities and even vigorous activities won’t disturb your artificial eye. However, hard impacts such as those received in car accidents or in contact sports such as football may cause your eye to become dislodged. If this happens, the eye should be cleaned following normal cleaning procedures and replaced in the socket. It is also advisable to wear protective eye gear when in high risk situations such as playing sports to lesson the likelihood of your eye become dislodged. Your eye doctor can help you obtain protective eye gear, if desired. It is also fine to swim while wearing an ocular prosthesis, although wearing goggles is advised.

Another common question is, “What it I drop my prosthetic?” People frequently drop their ocular prosthetic while it is removed for cleaning or for another reason. Due to the highly durable materials from which ocular prostheses are made, your prosthetic will not break when dropped from shoulder level onto any surface. Artificial eyes have survived many situations including being eaten by a dog or run over by a car. It could possibly break under extraordinary circumstances such as being dropped off a building or onto a highway full of moving cars, in which case it would need to be replaced, rather than repaired. Occasionally, ocular prosthetics are dropped into places where they cannot be retrieved, such as into a sewer. Many people keep their old artificial eyes on hand, when they are replaced, for use in emergency situations. Although an older prosthetic will not have an ideal fit, it is fine to wear when the current eye is not available.

Questions about driving are another common question by wearers of ocular prostheses. Many children wear artificial eyes from infancy or early childhood when driving is not an issue and at some point they begin to ask about their future ability to drive. As long as vision is normal in the remaining eye and the standard vision test administered by the agency issuing driver’s licenses can be passed, people with an artificial eye should be able to drive with some modifications. Because you will have a limited field of vision, you must compensate by turning your head more often and utilizing the mirrors more frequently than a fully-sighted person might.

In general, people with ocular prostheses can do anything that people with both eyes are able to do. Often, others are not even aware than someone is wearing an artificial eye. By taking a few precautionary measures and slightly modifying behavior, it is entirely possible to live a normal life after the removal of an eye. While this addresses some questions that may come up, your eye doctor and ocularist are always on-hand to answer additional questions that may arise as you adjust to life with an artificial eye.

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