The young girl from Gingindlovu, near Eshowe, who was recently raped and mutilated by a 15-year-old boy will be given a chance to enjoy a normal childhood, thanks to the Durban University of Technology’s Dental Clinic.
The Dental Clinic will fit the school girl’s left eye socket with a prosthesis tomorrow (Thursday 19 July 2012). The fitting is scheduled to take place at 10am at the Department of Dental Technology, Ritson Campus. The eight-year-old girl’s eye was gouged after a teenage boy dragged her into a sugarcane field, raped her, bit her neck, tried to gouge out both her eyes and choked her in May this year. The child cannot be identified because she is a rape victim.
“I got a call about a month ago from an optometrist who asked if I would be able to help make a prosthesis for this patient and I agreed,” said Dental Technology Department Lecturer Peter Furber who is heading up tomorrow’s procedure.
Until Monday 16 July when the patient arrived at the DUT Dental Clinic for her first assessment, Furber had not met her. DUT is accommodating her and her guardian until the procedure is finalised tomorrow (Thursday 19 July 2012).
Explaining the procedure, Furber said an impression of the empty socket was taken. This is necessary to create an exact replica. Once the eye impression was taken, the final model was made. Furber said ensuring that the iris colour of the artificial eye matches that of the patient’s right eye was of utmost importance.
“The eye will be built in wax which will then (the wax eye) be transferred to acrylic. After that, the white part of the eye and the veins will be painted and we will put a final layer of acrylic and the eye will be ready,” he said. This process takes three to four days to complete.
There are various factors to note and consider when custom making an eye, Furber said. These are the volume, colour, size and the line of sight; which means ensuring that the eye is positioned in the same way as the patient’s right eye would be when looking forward. “We are hoping that the prosthetic will also have adequate movement,” he said, adding that he is confident that the process will be as successful as past procedures conducted by the Dental Clinic. “We’ve done many procedures of this kind before”, he said.
Every day, the patient will have to remove the artificial eye to clean the eye socket, using water and once in a while using water and soap. After two years, the patient would return to Furber for a new prosthesis because at her age, the eye socket is still growing.
The DUT Dental Clinic is hopeful that the young girl will return to her hometown with a newfound confidence. “Children at her school are teasing her. Hopefully, the prosthetic eye will put an end to this,” said Furber.
–Naledi Hlefane
