A different wax sculpture technique for implant-retained auricular prosthesis

ABSTRACTReplacement of missing ears is a challenging task in which extensive array of materials and techniques have been employed. This article describes a different and simplified procedure for fabricating auricular prostheses very similar to the intact left ear of the patient. A 65-year-old male patient was referred to the Department of Prosthodontics with the loss of the right ear. In this case, the impression was made using hydrocolloid material (alginate) from the both defected and the opposite side. After hardening of the stone casts, a custom-made transparent splint plate was designed for the left auricular side. The splint was reversed and a cast model of the right auricular side was obtained as pouring the dental stone into transparent orthodontic splint. After getting the impression from cast model, conventional wax pattern and try on process was done. Finally, silicone elastomer was polymerized and the retention of the prosthesis acquired with the magnetic attachments. The technique described is economical, conventional, and time-saving. Furthermore, the prosthesis imitates the patient's intact auricular tissue.

Representation, Replication, Reproduction: The Legacy of Charles V in Sculpted Rulers' Portraits of the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Century

All rulers' portraits are, in several senses, forms of representation. In the first and most obvious instance, all portraits epitomize one of the basic functions of visual art as imitation (mimesis). Portraits represent a person by providing his or her likeness. The Renaissance sculptor Vincenzo Danti (1530–1576), a contemporary of the artists discussed here, pointed to this basic mimetic function when he defined one of the fundamental forms of artistic imitation as ritrarre, using a verb related to the Italian word for portrait, ritratto. Because they are works in three dimensions, sculpted portraits may approach this end even more directly, as seen in the sculpted heritage of Charles V that is the subject of this paper. In any case, hyperrealist works of the 1970s and wax sculpture of the past, including a small wax sculpture of Emperor Rudolf II with a favorite hound (London, Victoria and Albert Museum) (see Figure 1), demonstrate that sculpture may make the effort to portray individuals as close to life as possible.

Jules Germain Cloquet (1790–1883)–Drawing Master and Anatomist

Jules Germain Cloquet, the famed French anatomist, surgeon, and professor, may not be remembered as one of the pioneers of hernia surgery; however, his contributions have provided surgeons with detailed anatomical descriptions that have been useful in developing innovative surgical techniques. Cloquet has many eponyms associated with him, including: Cloquet's fascia, Cloquet's gland or lymph node of Cloquet, Cloquet's hernia, Cloquet's ligament, Cloquet's canal, and Cloquet's septum. A man blessed with artistic talents, Cloquet was the author of many theses, as well as anatomical volumes that were comparable to the works of other great anatomists of his time. His first thesis, entitled Recherches Anatomiques sur les Hernies de l'Abdomen, described the locations where inguinal and crural herniae are more likely to occur in terms of the cremaster muscle, the peritoneum, and the spermatic vessels. Wax sculpture training required extensive knowledge in the natural sciences, anatomy, physiology, and pathology, as were acquired by Jules Cloquet as a pupil of Achille-Cléophas Flaubert, the father of the famous French novelist Gustave Flaubert (author of Madame Bovary). Cloquet attracted many pupils with his innovative teaching style and implementation of anatomical preparations, drawings, and sketches on the black board with chalk. The legacy of this famed individual lives on today in the anatomical structures described by Cloquet.