When a human being loses an eyeball due to illness or injury, the defect is often disguised through the use of a cosmetic replacement called an ocular prosthetic. FIG. 1 is an illustration of an ocular prosthetic 10 in accordance with the prior art. The ocular prosthetic 10 is commonly formed from a hardened resin material and designed to match the user's eyeball such that the ocular prosthetic 10 obtains the look of a natural eyeball. The ocular prosthetic 10 has an iris 12 having a pupil 14, commonly with a fixed diameter, where the iris 12 is colored to match the coloring of the iris of the wearer's remaining natural eyeball.
When both an eyeball and the surrounding muscles and tissue are lost due to illness or injury, the defect is cosmetically disguised with an orbital prosthetic. FIGS. 2-3 are a front view illustration and a cross-sectional side view illustration of an orbital prosthetic 20 in accordance with the prior art. The orbital prosthetic 20 commonly consists of two parts: the ocular prosthetic 10 and a facial prosthetic 22. The facial prosthetic 22 is commonly formed from a moldable material, such as silicon, which is formed with a shape that can fit within a cavity of the user's eye socket and can be interfaced with the facial skin of the user to blend the prosthesis with the user's face. The facial prosthetic 22 may be secured within the user's eye socket cavity using an adhesive, using one or more osseointegrated implants, or using another method or device which securely adheres the facial prosthetic 22 in the desired place. The edges 24 of the facial prosthetic 22 may be tapered to allow blending of the prosthetic with the user's face with makeup or similar coverings. The ocular prosthetic 10 may be mounted in the facial prosthetic 22 and the center of the facial prosthetic 22 may include a prosthetic cavity 26 positioned substantially behind the ocular prosthetic 10.
It is highly desirable that ocular prosthetics 10 and orbital prosthetics 20 provide a natural-looking appearance so that people who view a user with an ocular prosthetic 10 and/or orbital prosthetic 20 do not notice the use of a prosthetic and so the user of the ocular prosthetic 10 and/or orbital prosthetic 20 does not feel conspicuous. While ocular prosthetics 10 and orbital prosthetics 20 provide users with a significant improvement in their facial defect in comparison to not using a prosthetic, they also fail to appear natural in many ways. For example, most conventional ocular prosthetics 10 do not mimic or mirror a user's natural eyeball, which is readily noticeable to observers. This movement may include resizing of the pupil or movement of the eyeball within the eye socket. As a result, while the ocular prosthetics 10 and/or orbital prosthetics 20 may be satisfactory in limited situations where the user does not have significant interaction with another person, in situations where more extensive interactions occur, e.g., handshake greetings, conversations, and the like, an observer can often easily notice the use of the prosthetic.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.