![\"Dave](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\/6cf1bf33-a61b-4cf9-bb99-c3f599ea0224.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhen Dave Richards looks in the mirror, he not only counts himself lucky to still be alive, but is also amazed to see his own face looking back at him.<\/p>\n
Richards, 75, from Devon, has become one of the first people to have his face rebuilt on the NHS using 3D scanning and printing as part of a process in which specialists crafted a prosthetic cheek, eye and nose that could be affixed each morning and removed at the end of the day.<\/p>\n
The prosthesis fits perfectly over the site of a devastating injury, restoring with remarkable accuracy the appearance of a man who has had to live with half a face for more than four years.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Richards before the procedure<\/p>\n
TOM WREN\/SWNS<\/p>\n
He was out cycling with friends in Wiltshire in 2021 when he was smashed off his bike and dragged along beneath the car of a drunk driver. His friends were thrown clear, but the crash broke Richards\u2019s back, pelvis and multiple ribs.<\/p>\n
On top of these crush injuries, heat from the car\u2019s exhaust as he was trapped underneath left him with full-thickness burns to the left side of his face and neck. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a lovely sunny day and not long into the ride. We were going up a hill on a B road, and this guy comes up behind us at speed, and over the drunk-drive limit. He was on his phone, racing up behind us and we were all in line,\u201d Richards said.<\/p>\n
![\"Dave](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\/42216a98-7db1-4a1e-96af-742e57516828.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Richards and his wife before the crash<\/p>\n
TOM WREN\/SWNS<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wanted to swerve around us, but there was a car coming the other way, so it was either smash into the car or smash into us. My two friends got hit and were thrown clear of the car, but I got trapped under the car, and was rolled along, with the engine and exhaust burning through one side of my body and the other side being crushed by the car.\u201d<\/p>\n
The driver was sentenced to three years in prison but is understood to have been released after 18 months.<\/p>\n
Surgeons tried to save Richards\u2019s eye but had to remove it to avoid the spread of infection and he also lost much of his nose. Initial efforts to rebuild the side of his face saw a large \u201cfree flap\u201d of skin transplanted from elsewhere on Richards\u2019s body, complete with blood vessels connected to the vessels of his face and neck. It broadly followed the contours of his eye socket and cheek, but left him without a left eye or eyebrow and with a misshapen left nostril.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the early days of my recovery, I felt very vulnerable and would not expose myself to social situations,\u201d he said. \u201cIt took me a long time to feel comfortable about my image, how I thought people looked at me and what they thought of me, but I have come a long way in that respect. I was keen to explore anything that could be done to alter the visual aspects of my injuries to give me more confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Dave](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\/aa077fad-6312-429c-927d-2935a839c347.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Richards in hospital after the crash<\/p>\n
TOM WREN\/SWNS<\/p>\n
Richards, who has four grandchildren, was referred to the Bristol 3D Medical Centre<\/a> at the North Bristol NHS Trust, the first NHS facility where 3D scanning, design and printing have been gathered on one site to produce bespoke medical devices and prostheses.<\/p>\n His face was photographed from several angles in a scanning process that can even capture the shape of someone\u2019s body while they are moving. This created a high-accuracy 3D digital replica of his head.<\/p>\n A mould was then 3D-printed as a guide for specialists to create a wax version of the prosthetic panel. The final version is not 3D-printed but made by specialists from silicone, which was precisely matched to the colour and texture of Richards\u2019s skin down to the inclusion of freckles, veins and wrinkles.<\/p>\n