Trevor Coward is a Professor and Consultant in Prosthetic Facial Rehabilitation and has recently formed the “Academic Centre of Reconstructive Science” which comes under the Centre for Oral, Clinical and Translational Sciences, and has over 30 years of experience with rehabilitating patients with facial/body prostheses.
The focus of his research is to rebuild faces using innovative prostheses based on novel technologies. The patients rehabilitated include children, young adults who have congenital malformations of the face, adults who have been treated for oral cancer, those following trauma to the face and neck or suffering from war wounds.
Dr Coward's research interests fall into two main areas much of which is translational research that has been adapted for use in the NHS. The main focus of his research is based upon the use of digital technology in the planning and provision of facial prostheses. This includes CT, MRI, Laser scan data and more recently stereophotogrammetry used in conjunction with CAD/CAM techniques to produce anatomical facial /body parts in silicone.
A second area of interest is Computerised Colour Formulation & Spectrophotometry. A spectrophotometer used in conjunction with a computerised colour formulation software permitted the intrinsic pigments and quantity of each pigment to be identified in natural skin and provide a range of basic shades in silicone to simulate the colour of various ethnic skin colours.
Recent funding by government and a commercial company has afforded the opportunity to develop 3D printing of prostheses in silicone and colour matched to the missing part of the face/body.
He has published widely in peer-reviewed journals and is a clinical research fellow at the world renown Maxillofacial Centre in Edmonton, Canada and was made a Honorary Clinical Professor at Hong Kong University Prince Philip Dental hospital for his research in maxillofacial prostheses.