Saving Face

The work utilized the medical imaging analysis Whitestone had learned at Wright State in her biomedical engineering program, and she saw potential medical applications for anthropometry—using surface scanning with lasers to measure wound healing, for example.

It was work that drew the interest of burn therapists from Miami Valley Hospital. In 1997, Whitestone recalled, “They came to me and said, ‘Hey, we have this patient who needs a burn mask. Do you think you can figure out how to make him one?’”

She had no way of knowing the patient who needed her help was someone she had known since childhood.

By precisely measuring facial contours, Whitestone’s company can make masks that reduce scarring for burn victims.

A burn mask reduces scar tissue buildup by pressing against the skin. Since scars grow continuously, a burn patient must wear the mask up to 23 hours per day for a year or longer. A precise fit is important for good results and comfort.

In the 1990s, the standard practice for making a burn mask was to cover the patient’s face with plaster to make a cast—a process that was uncomfortable at best and didn’t result in a perfect fit, Whitestone said.

“By using surface scanning, we’re going to capture the contours of the person’s face with sub-millimeter accuracy, and then we can replicate that,” Whitestone said. “We can also smooth the scars out ahead of time, so that the mold itself is a smooth representation of their face and not a scarred representation.” The end result is a plastic mask that fits better and helps the patient’s face heal better than earlier models.

When Whitestone finally met the patient, “I was shocked. I was very shocked,” she said. The patient was Jim VanDeGrift, who had coached football and track at Lebanon High School while Whitestone was a student there.

“I knew him very well. He and his family went to our church and I grew up with his kids,” Whitestone said. He had recently retired but had been severely burned in an accident with his lawn tractor.

Whitestone and others who volunteered for the project scanned VanDeGrift’s face with a laser and made the mask. But much of its success would depend on him. The retired coach would have to keep it on around the clock for it to be fully effective.

“Coach VanDeGrift was a very disciplined man, so he wore the mask like he was supposed to, and I started to see over the months that his scars were receding, and it was very dramatic,” Whitestone said.

The experience convinced her to make burn masks for other fire victims. “It became my passion. I wanted to get the technology out to other burn patients,” she said.

She set up her fledgling company in vacant space in the former St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Dayton, then moved it to a storefront building in Germantown, near her home.

Total Contact remains a small company with just a handful of employees, but Whitestone said it isn’t sales or profits that drive her. “This business in many respects is a mission,” she said.

This ear cast illustrates the accuracy of surface scanning technology.

Even so, Whitestone has expanded Total Contact beyond burn masks.

For example, her company recently completed a three-year project for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to measure 951 firefighters across the country. The data will help equipment suppliers design safer and better-fitting gear, from gloves to fire engine seatbelts.

Also, a joint venture between Total Contact and another small company has created five patent applications with the goal of developing new medical products.

Whitestone gives Wright State a lot of credit for her accomplishments.

“I think Wright State was instrumental. I don’t think I would be where I am now without Wright State,” she said. It’s one of the reasons why she has stayed close to the university as an adjunct faculty member and advisor.

Whitestone said her company collaborates with Wright State to provide senior design projects for undergraduates in biomedical engineering. “We give them a project and we team the students up so there are generally two or three students on a team, and they work on the project and we work with them throughout the year,” she said.

“It’s a great program. I just love working with the students. They’re seniors, so they’ve had all the foundation of engineering for the undergraduate perspective, and then we give them a real-world problem, and it’s usually something we’re working on at the time, so we are very interested in it.

“So I haven’t gone far from Wright State,” Whitestone said. “Even though I graduated, I keep coming back.”