make preferableA two-year-old born without a nose has become the first person to have a cosmetic nasal implant fitted to help create the missing appendage.
Tessa Evans, from Maghera, Ireland, suffers from an exceptionally rare medical condition called complete congenital arhinia, meaning she was born without a nose.
Arhinia is so rare that there are only 47 cases reported in medical history, and it leaves Tessa with no sense of smell and no sinuses, although she can cough, sneeze and catch a cold.
Now, she has just undergone a pioneering operation to have a mould inserted into her face, to stretch her skin and slowly build the missing facial feature.
She will have more surgeries to have the implant replaced as she gets older, so the nose 'grows' with her face.
Then, when she is a teenager, she will receive the final prosthesis, which will be tattooed with light and dark shades so it looks like a real body part.
Normally, people who need a nasal prosthesis have a procedure to rebuild their nose when they are a teenager, when the face has stopped growing.
In an operation carried out at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, plastic surgeon Jonathan Britto used a 3D printer to make a model of Tessa's skull.
Then, he used a substance like modelling clay to design a small mould that fitted to her face underneath her skin.
The custom-made implant was then produced in medical grade material, ready for the operation.
It was inserted via an incision behind her hairline, meaning there is no scarring at all on her face. Tessa will undergo surgery every couple of years to ensure her nose “grows” at the same rate as the rest of her body.
A final prosthesis will be fitted when she reaches her teenage years.
