Analysis of Intrinsic Coloration of Facial Prostheses Using a Spectrophotometer

Abstract

Formulating the color of a facial prosthesis requires not only coordinating with the surrounding facial skin tone but also reflecting the underlying dermis. Intrinsic coloring pigment is often too concentrated to reproduce the translucency of skin. Clinically, a nylon fiber called “flocking” is used to obtain the nuance of skin tone. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of adding color flocking to facial silicone on the color tone of facial skin using a spectrophotometer.
Ten subjects participated in this study. Four types of silicone sample were fabricated with only color pigment, or with 110 mg, 220 mg, or 440 mg flocking added to the color pigment in each subject. Melanin index （MI）, Hb （hemoglobin） index （HbI）, and hemoglobin oxygen saturation （HbSO₂） index were evaluated as well as spectral reflectance and colorimetric values of the sample silicone formulated for the 10 subjects. a^＊, b^＊ and MI were not significantly different between each sample. HbI increased according to the amount of flocking added while HbSO₂ index decreased. The results in this study suggest that flocking is effective for fabricating natural facial prosthesis.