Saturday, February 03, 2007



James P. Banfield,Ocularist specializes in the fabricating and fitting of custom-made ocular prosthetics commonly known as artificial eyes. The one he's holding in the photo was custom made for me over a two day period in St. Johns,NL. I'll be wearing the prosthetic for at least six years if i care for it properly.
Artificial eyes have been made for thousands of years with some made of glass or gold. later they were replaced by plastic or silicone spheres. Lack of movement was a major obstacle to restoring a natural appearance, which made the adjustment to wearing an artificial eye much more difficult. Today with a skilled surgeon and an Ocularist such as James Banfield things have changed. Most people will not actually know the eye is artificial because it moves and the color matches perfectly. Todays artificial eyes can be left in the eye socket for many months and only has to be removed when the person visits the Ocularist for regular cleaning. The Ocularist gave me great advice over the two day fabricating and dispelled myths that i heard on the topic over the years. Thank you James Banfield!!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

discovered your story while searching a few days ago. my son has to get an eye because of an injury. your blog is informative and really makes the ordeal much easier.(he's 14)

will keep checking back. thank you.

Rodney MacLeod said...

Heather and James have been making eyes for me the last 30 years. Always doing a great job. Very few people ever know I have a artificial eye. I plan on going for a cleaning in a month and probably a new eye with in a year.

Glasseyerod
http://www.glasseyerod.com

Table Mountains said...

getting my first cleaning in may. so far i have had no trouble and actually forget i have the eye. very comfortable and my friends are amazed by the match.