# Engineering Prosthetic Elastomers to Mimic Facial Skin Properties

> **NIH VA I01** · OMAHA VA  MEDICAL CENTER · 2020 · —

## Abstract

Many military combat injuries involve the head and neck. Often these injuries result in
losses of noses, eyes, ears or jaws. These missing facial structures are no longer able to function,
and they produce deformities in facial appearance. When lost facial structures cannot be
corrected surgically, they are replaced by artificial prostheses. Head and face prostheses should
reproduce lost structures to the finest detail, be color matched to the patient’s skin and feel like
skin. Although currently used materials permit adequate color matching with skin, unfortunately
they are very rigid, inflexible and do not feel like skin. New materials are needed to better replicate
the flexibility, compressibility and feel of human facial skin.
 The goal of this research is to develop a new generation of flexible materials that will
produce facial prostheses that feel like human facial skin. The project will rely on engineering
optimization methods to help design and test new formulations that yield materials capable of
reproducing specific properties of the human forehead, nose, chin, cheek and ear. Using physical
property measurements previously obtained for these five areas of the face, flexible polymers
(plastics) will be constructed in a manner that reproduces facial skin at these locations.
Combinations of nanofillers, polymer molecular weight, crosslinker content and co-monomer
mixtures will be optimized to achieve the project’s goal of developing new prosthetic materials.
Successful completion of the project is expected to lead to products eventually becoming available
to clinicians and anaplastologists.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9873835
- **Project number:** 5I01RX002606-03
- **Recipient organization:** OMAHA VA  MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** MARK William BEATTY
- **Activity code:** I01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-04-01 → 2021-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9873835

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9873835, Engineering Prosthetic Elastomers to Mimic Facial Skin Properties (5I01RX002606-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9873835. Licensed CC0.

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