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It's Labor Day. Meet Someone With An Unusual Job

By Bill Zeeble, KERA News

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-984719.mp3

Dallas, TX – Anaplastologists might wish you never need their services. But if you do, several work in Dallas. Now you're wondering "What is an anaplastologist?" On this Labor Day, KERA's Bill Zeeble talked to someone with this rare job.

Meet Suzanne Verma, at Baylor's College of Dentistry in Dallas' Texas A&M Health Science Center. She has done this job a dozen years. Verma is not a dentist or surgeon, but can sound like one, and wears a lab coat. She is an anaplastologist.

Suzanne Verma, Anaplastologist: Anaplastology is the art and science of restoring a malformed or absent part of the human body through artificial means.

Maybe the patient was born without an ear, lost a nose or finger in a car wreck, or had an eye and cheek removed because of cancer. As part of a medical team, it's Verma's job to recreate that ear, nose, eye or cheek out of silicone, and color it to fit the patient.

Suzanne Verma, Anaplastologist: We want them to return to their normal way of life, return to their hobbies. To go out and be able to have people at the supermarket not notice that they may have an artificial ear.

Verma says it's also more than that. It's a restoration of the body and spirit.

Verma: Because no matter what the prosthesis looks like, you're wanting to heal them and make them feel whole. So part of that is not just trying to make a beautiful prosthesis that blends in, that people would not notice, it's also making that patient evolve from their traumatic incident.

Verma says that's one of the most rewarding payoffs of this job. She didn't even know the profession existed until she read about it in a magazine while in high school. She was hooked. Verma contacted the person mentioned in the article, who gave her advice. After pursuing what she says amounted to a dual degree in pre-med and fine arts, she then graduated with a masters in biological visualization with an emphasis on facial prosthetics. Also considered a medical artist, Verma paints when she can.

Verma: My pastime is watercolors, I really do enjoy water color and I also enjoy reading scientific journals and keeping up to date on things in head and neck research. I guess I'm even teaching my 4 year-old daughter. She loves art and thinks it's a normal daily effect to be making ears and noses. So sometimes we play with Play Dough a little more anatomical, in a way.

Verma says she has never been asked to create an unrealistic appendage, but has received some fun requests. She is happy to make an ear that takes I-Pod ear buds, a Blue-Tooth device, or will accept that favorite pierced earring.

Verma: There were young children that were so excited, he got an ear I think near Halloween time and said, "I can't wait to go door to door and have ketchup in my hand and show someone my prosthesis." And we finally said, "I don't' think that's a good idea."

In this field that few have ever heard of or even know about, Verma says, in a way, anonymity is preferred.

Verma: With a great masterpiece you would want to have everyone know that you are the artist of that masterpiece and sign it with a big signature. With our art you want it to go unnoticed. In a sense someone can be walking with your artwork but you don't want that someone to know that they're wearing a prosthesis. We want to have it be unknown.

Verma belongs to an international organization of anaplastologists spread across 26 nations. But she says the job is so rare that membership is 125 or so.

anaplastology.org
bcd.tamhsc.edu/education/oral-surgery/prosthodontics.html

Email Bill Zeeble