Project Facade: About

• Bioactive© glass facial implants
• Dr Ian Thompson
• Intratracheal anaesthesia
• Investrite
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

The material Bioactive glass was invented by American Professor Larry Hench during the Vietnam War. Tasked by the US Government to develop a material which could be used to repair large bone injuries suffered by Servicemen during the war, Professor Hench used silica (glass) as a carried or host material which could be combined with other ingredients such as calcium in a powdered form to pack between bone fragments to fuse shattered bones.

Dr. Ian Thompson is a Research Fellow in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, at Guy’s Hospital, King’s College London and is Principal Investigator with Paddy Hartley on the ‘Face Corsets and Bioactive Glass Facial Implants Project’ funded by a Wellcome Trust People Award. He is also the Projects Manager for the Tissue Engineering Group in the Department of Materials, Imperial College, London.  Ian has been responsible for the development of bioactive glass materials for tissue engineering and the repair of skeletal deformity for over seven years and has recently been working on a multi million Dollar project to produce a ‘living’ detector to determine the presence of toxic agents in public places.  Ian’s latest clinical activities have been to produce orbital floor replacements for patients who have experienced some form of trauma or disease.

In addition to the innovations in facial surgery pioneered under Harold Gillies at the Queen’s Hospital Sidcup, there were considerable advances in the administering of anaesthetics. It was said at the time that patients feared the anaesthetist’s bottle of chloroform almost as much as the surgeon’s knife. 

Investrite is a castable material similar to plaster and is usually used by jewellers and glass casters. It is relatively soft once cast, making it very easy to remove when used to cast metal or glass using the lost wax process and counters plasters tendency to crack when exposed to heat. If used on its own it should be used within a specialist vacuum chamber. Lost wax moulds made by Paddy Hartley and Dr Ian Thompson are made using various ratios of plaster, Investrite and high temperature aggregate (the latter being crushed fire brick is used as a strengthening material).

An imaging technique used in diagnosing certain diseases. Using electromagnetic radiation, images can be obtained of the internal soft tissues such as the brain, spinal cord and other major organs.