IN TOTAL or partial restoration of the orbital socket, most ophthalmic surgeons find the use of a mold desirable, although some have merely placed the graft in the orbit and packed it into place.1
For years the use of Kerr's dental compound has been fairly satisfactory. But this material, around which an epidermic or a mucous-membrane graft is held in place by dermatome cement, sutures, or ointment, has three fundamental disadvantages: (1) the time required to make the mold and to fit it into the orbit; (2) the rigidity of the material, which causes difficulty in removing and replacing it without undue traumatism, and (3) the difficulty of altering the size of the mold with scissors.
In the operations to be described, we have substituted a mold of true wax for Kerr's dental compound and we believe that the disadvantages of the latter have been eliminated. Although conjunctiva and