Carolyn Thomas was covered with a sheet at the scene as evidence was being gathered.  Carolyn refused to die. After reaching out and grabbing an officer’s leg, her three year battle began.  A team of six doctors donated their time and expertise to rebuild Carolyn, the woman without a face.

After seven facial reconstructive surgeries, Dr. Kathy Frazar was faced with restoring Carolyn’s upper left maxilla.  She lost teeth #11-15 after tragically being shot to the face.  Her maxilla was reconstructed with a femur and the skin from her leg.  It was a restorative challenge to custom fabricate impression trays that would actually fit into her reconstructed periorbital tissues.  Her lower lip was slid 1/3 up to make a new upper lip, to lower the oral opening.  The second challenge was gingival collar heights on the implants since the intraoral tissue was not similar to the epithelium once in her mouth.  Dr. Frazar was present in the operating room during the implant placement to assist in angulation of the implants.  All facial and intraoral landmarks were missing or in a new location.  She wore a flipper during the healing phase of six months and the final impressions were taken to restore teeth #9-15.  She will be filled with a permanent removable implant supported structure.  She does not have a vestibule and it is almost impossibly to place screw retained prosthetics due to her restricted oral opening.

Carolyn has told her story of violence all over the country and has been featured on Oprah and The Discovery Health Channel.

          “I just wanted to be able to walk down the street and not have people stare at me.  I am speaking on domestic violence all over the country so this will not happen to other women.”

“It is not everyday I can help change someone’s entire life by giving them a smile!”

-Dr. Kathy Frazar