| Facial Prosthetics Department |
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The Facial Prosthetics Department designs, fabricates, fits and maintains camouflage Facial Prosthetics as an aid to patients having disfiguring facial deformities. These prostheses allow the patient to fit anonymously into society without having other people notice that they have a deformity or disability.
This provides a major psychological boost to the patient who may be reluctant to appear in public or introverted and self conscious as a result of their appearance.
A good prosthesis gives these people the confidence to face the world and go about every day life without feeling that they are being stared at or being made to feel that they are abnormal or less of a human being.
Much of the early work was designed for soldiers returning from World War II with horrific facial injuries. This role was expanded to include not only eyes, ears, and noses but also fingers, toes, breast and other prostheses. Most patients who require prostheses do so as a result of surgery arising from cancers, congenital deformities and accidents and trauma. This service is for public and private patients referred by doctors and other health professionals, from within the Melbourne Health network catchment as well as other Victorian health care services and also from interstate and private medical practitioners.
Other services provided include the design and manufacture of specialised dental prosthetics for patients with compromised oral anatomy, orthognathic dental splints and splints for facial fractures.
More specialised work includes making appliances such as Cranioplasty plates, custom tracheostomy tubes, patterns for use in bone and tissue grafting procedures, various surgical dilators, gold eyelid weights, as well as the construction of medical teaching models such as skulls, knee joints and other demonstration models. | 
