Iain Hutchison: Saving faces

29,464 views ・ 2011-02-23

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:15
Our face is hugely important
0
15260
3000
00:18
because it's the external, visual part
1
18260
2000
00:20
that everybody else sees.
2
20260
2000
00:22
Let's not forget it's a functional entity.
3
22260
2000
00:24
We have strong skull bones
4
24260
2000
00:26
that protect the most important organ in our body: the brain.
5
26260
3000
00:29
It's where our senses are located, our special senses --
6
29260
3000
00:32
our vision, our speech,
7
32260
2000
00:34
our hearing, our smell, our taste.
8
34260
2000
00:36
And this bone
9
36260
2000
00:38
is peppered, as you can see, with the light shining through the skull
10
38260
3000
00:41
with cavities, the sinuses,
11
41260
2000
00:43
which warm and moisten the air we breathe.
12
43260
3000
00:46
But also imagine if they were filled with solid bone --
13
46260
3000
00:49
our head would be dead weight,
14
49260
2000
00:51
we wouldn't be able to hold it erect,
15
51260
2000
00:53
we wouldn't be able to look at the world around us.
16
53260
3000
01:02
This woman is slowly dying
17
62260
2000
01:04
because the benign tumors in her facial bones
18
64260
3000
01:07
have completely obliterated her mouth and her nose
19
67260
3000
01:10
so she can't breathe and eat.
20
70260
2000
01:12
Attached to the facial bones
21
72260
2000
01:14
that define our face's structure
22
74260
4000
01:18
are the muscles that deliver our facial expression,
23
78260
3000
01:21
our universal language of expression,
24
81260
3000
01:24
our social-signaling system.
25
84260
2000
01:26
And overlying this is the skin drape,
26
86260
3000
01:29
which is a hugely complex
27
89260
2000
01:31
three-dimensional structure --
28
91260
2000
01:33
taking right-angled bends here and there,
29
93260
2000
01:35
having thin areas like the eyelids,
30
95260
3000
01:38
thick areas like the cheek, different colors.
31
98260
3000
01:41
And then we have the sensual factor of the face.
32
101260
3000
01:44
Where do we like to kiss people?
33
104260
2000
01:46
On the lips. Nibble the ears maybe.
34
106260
3000
01:49
It's the face where we're attracted to with that.
35
109260
3000
01:52
But let's not forget the hair.
36
112260
2000
01:54
You're looking at the image on your left-hand side --
37
114260
2000
01:56
that's my son with his eyebrows present.
38
116260
2000
01:58
Look how odd he looks with the eyebrows missing.
39
118260
3000
02:01
There's a definite difference.
40
121260
2000
02:03
And imagine if he had hair sprouting from the middle of his nose,
41
123260
2000
02:05
he'd look even odder still.
42
125260
2000
02:07
Dysmorphophobia
43
127260
2000
02:09
is an extreme version
44
129260
2000
02:11
of the fact that we don't see ourselves
45
131260
2000
02:13
as others see us.
46
133260
2000
02:15
It's a shocking truth
47
135260
2000
02:17
that we only see mirror images of ourselves,
48
137260
3000
02:20
and we only see ourselves
49
140260
2000
02:22
in freeze-frame photographic images
50
142260
2000
02:24
that capture a mere fraction of the time that we live.
51
144260
3000
02:27
Dysmorphophobia
52
147260
2000
02:29
is a perversion of this
53
149260
2000
02:31
where people who may be very good looking
54
151260
2000
02:33
regard themselves as hideously ugly
55
153260
2000
02:35
and are constantly seeking surgery
56
155260
2000
02:37
to correct their facial appearance.
57
157260
3000
02:40
They don't need this. They need psychiatric help.
58
160260
3000
02:43
Max has kindly donated his photograph to me.
59
163260
2000
02:45
He doesn't have dysmorphophobia, but I'm using his photograph
60
165260
3000
02:48
to illustrate the fact that he looks exactly like a dysmorphophobic.
61
168260
2000
02:50
In other words, he looks entirely normal.
62
170260
3000
02:53
Age is another thing
63
173260
3000
02:56
when our attitude toward our appearance changes.
64
176260
2000
02:58
So children judge themselves, learn to judge themselves,
65
178260
3000
03:01
by the behavior of adults around them.
66
181260
3000
03:04
Here's a classic example: Rebecca has a benign blood vessel tumor
67
184260
3000
03:07
that's growing out through her skull, has obliterated her nose,
68
187260
3000
03:10
and she's having difficulty seeing.
69
190260
2000
03:12
As you can see, it's blocking her vision.
70
192260
2000
03:14
She's also in danger, when she damages this,
71
194260
2000
03:16
of bleeding profusely.
72
196260
2000
03:18
Our research has shown
73
198260
2000
03:20
that the parents and close loved ones of these children
74
200260
3000
03:23
adore them.
75
203260
2000
03:25
They've grown used to their face; they think they're special.
76
205260
3000
03:28
Actually, sometimes the parents argue
77
208260
2000
03:30
about whether these children should have the lesion removed.
78
210260
3000
03:33
And occasionally they suffer intense grief reactions
79
213260
2000
03:35
because the child they've grown to love
80
215260
2000
03:37
has changed so dramatically and they don't recognize them.
81
217260
3000
03:40
But other adults
82
220260
2000
03:42
say incredibly painful things.
83
222260
2000
03:44
They say, "How dare you take this child out of the house
84
224260
2000
03:46
and terrify other people.
85
226260
2000
03:48
Shouldn't you be doing something about this? Why haven't you had it removed?"
86
228260
3000
03:51
And other children in curiosity come up and poke the lesion,
87
231260
3000
03:54
because -- a natural curiosity.
88
234260
2000
03:56
And that obviously alerts the child
89
236260
2000
03:58
to their unusual nature.
90
238260
2000
04:00
After surgery, everything normalizes.
91
240260
3000
04:03
The adults behave more naturally,
92
243260
2000
04:05
and the children play more readily with other children.
93
245260
3000
04:08
As teenagers --
94
248260
3000
04:11
just think back to your teenage years --
95
251260
2000
04:13
we're going through a dramatic
96
253260
2000
04:15
and often disproportionate change
97
255260
2000
04:17
in our facial appearance.
98
257260
2000
04:19
We're trying to struggle to find our identity.
99
259260
2000
04:21
We crave the approval of our peers.
100
261260
2000
04:23
So our facial appearance is vital to us
101
263260
3000
04:26
as we're trying to project ourselves to the world.
102
266260
2000
04:28
Just remember that single acne spot
103
268260
2000
04:30
that crippled you for several days.
104
270260
3000
04:34
How long did you spend looking in the mirror every day,
105
274260
3000
04:37
practicing your sardonic look, practicing your serious look,
106
277260
3000
04:40
trying to look like Sean Connery, as I did,
107
280260
2000
04:42
trying to raise one eyebrow?
108
282260
2000
04:44
It's a crippling time.
109
284260
2000
04:46
I've chosen to show this profile view of Sue
110
286260
4000
04:50
because what it shows is her lower jaw jutting forward
111
290260
3000
04:53
and her lower lip jutting forward.
112
293260
2000
04:55
I'd like you all in the audience now to push your lower jaw forward.
113
295260
3000
04:58
Turn to the person next to you,
114
298260
2000
05:00
push your lower jaws forward. Turn to the person next to you
115
300260
2000
05:02
and look at them -- they look miserable.
116
302260
2000
05:04
That's exactly what people used to say to Sue.
117
304260
3000
05:07
She wasn't miserable at all.
118
307260
2000
05:09
But people used to say to her, "Why are you so miserable?"
119
309260
3000
05:13
People were making misjudgments all the time
120
313260
3000
05:16
on her mood.
121
316260
2000
05:18
Teachers and peers were underestimating her; she was teased at school.
122
318260
3000
05:21
So she chose to have facial surgery.
123
321260
2000
05:23
After the facial surgery,
124
323260
2000
05:25
she said, "My face now reflects my personality.
125
325260
3000
05:28
People know now that I'm enthusiastic,
126
328260
3000
05:31
that I'm a happy person."
127
331260
2000
05:33
And that's the change that can be achieved for teenagers.
128
333260
4000
05:37
Is this change, though, a real change,
129
337260
2000
05:39
or is it a figment of the imagination
130
339260
3000
05:42
of the patient themselves?
131
342260
2000
05:44
Well we studied teenagers' attitudes
132
344260
2000
05:46
to photographs of patients having this corrective facial surgery.
133
346260
2000
05:48
And what we found was --
134
348260
3000
05:51
we jumbled up the photographs
135
351260
2000
05:53
so they couldn't recognize the before and after --
136
353260
2000
05:55
what we found was that the patients were regarded
137
355260
2000
05:57
as being more attractive after the surgery.
138
357260
2000
05:59
Well that's not surprising, but we also asked them to judge them
139
359260
3000
06:02
on honesty, intelligence,
140
362260
2000
06:04
friendliness, violence.
141
364260
3000
06:07
They were all perceived as being
142
367260
2000
06:09
less than normal in all those characteristics --
143
369260
2000
06:11
more violent, etc. -- before the surgery.
144
371260
3000
06:14
After the surgery,
145
374260
2000
06:16
they were perceived as being more intelligent,
146
376260
2000
06:18
more friendly, more honest, less violent --
147
378260
3000
06:21
and yet we hadn't operated on their intellect
148
381260
2000
06:23
or their character.
149
383260
2000
06:25
When people get older,
150
385260
2000
06:27
they don't necessarily choose to follow this kind of surgery.
151
387260
3000
06:30
Their presence in the consultation suite
152
390260
2000
06:32
is a result of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
153
392260
3000
06:35
What happens to them
154
395260
2000
06:37
is that they may have suffered cancer or trauma.
155
397260
2000
06:39
So this is a photograph of Henry,
156
399260
2000
06:41
two weeks after he had a malignant cancer removed
157
401260
3000
06:44
from the left side of his face -- his cheekbone,
158
404260
3000
06:47
his upper jaw, his eye-socket.
159
407260
2000
06:49
He looks pretty good at this stage.
160
409260
2000
06:51
But over the course of the next 15 years he had 14 more operations,
161
411260
3000
06:54
as the disease ravaged his face
162
414260
2000
06:56
and destroyed my reconstruction regularly.
163
416260
2000
06:58
I learned a huge amount from Henry.
164
418260
2000
07:00
Henry taught me
165
420260
2000
07:02
that you can carry on working.
166
422260
2000
07:04
He worked as an advocate. He continued to play cricket.
167
424260
3000
07:07
He enjoyed life to the full,
168
427260
2000
07:09
and this was probably because he had a successful, fulfilling job
169
429260
2000
07:11
and a caring family
170
431260
2000
07:13
and was able to participate socially.
171
433260
2000
07:15
He maintained a calm insouciance.
172
435260
3000
07:18
I don't say he overcame this; he didn't overcome it.
173
438260
3000
07:21
This was something more than that. He ignored it.
174
441260
3000
07:24
He ignored the disfigurement that was happening in his life
175
444260
3000
07:27
and carried on oblivious to it.
176
447260
3000
07:30
And that's what these people can do.
177
450260
2000
07:32
Henriapi illustrates this phenomenon as well.
178
452260
2000
07:34
This is a man in his 20s
179
454260
2000
07:36
whose first visit out of Nigeria was with this malignant cancer
180
456260
3000
07:39
that he came to the United Kingdom to have operated on.
181
459260
2000
07:41
It was my longest operation.
182
461260
2000
07:43
It took 23 hours. I did it with my neurosurgeon.
183
463260
3000
07:46
We removed all the bones at the right side of his face --
184
466260
2000
07:48
his eye, his nose,
185
468260
2000
07:50
the skull bones, the facial skin --
186
470260
2000
07:52
and reconstructed him with tissue from the back.
187
472260
3000
07:55
He continued to work as a psychiatric nurse.
188
475260
2000
07:57
He got married. He had a son called Jeremiah.
189
477260
3000
08:00
And again, he said,
190
480260
2000
08:02
"This painting of me with my son Jeremiah
191
482260
3000
08:05
shows me as the successful man that I feel that I am."
192
485260
3000
08:08
His facial disfigurement
193
488260
2000
08:10
did not affect him
194
490260
2000
08:12
because he had the support of a family;
195
492260
2000
08:14
he had a successful, fulfilling job.
196
494260
2000
08:16
So we've seen that we can change people's faces.
197
496260
3000
08:19
But when we change people's faces,
198
499260
2000
08:21
are we changing their identity --
199
501260
2000
08:23
for better or for worse?
200
503260
3000
08:26
For instance,
201
506260
2000
08:28
there are two different types of facial surgery.
202
508260
2000
08:30
We can categorize it like that.
203
510260
2000
08:32
We can say there are patients who choose to have facial surgery --
204
512260
2000
08:34
like Sue.
205
514260
2000
08:36
When they have facial surgery,
206
516260
2000
08:38
they feel their lives have changed
207
518260
2000
08:40
because other people perceive them
208
520260
3000
08:43
as better people.
209
523260
2000
08:45
They don't feel different.
210
525260
2000
08:47
They feel that they've actually gained
211
527260
2000
08:49
what they never had,
212
529260
2000
08:51
that their face now reflects their personality.
213
531260
2000
08:53
And actually that's probably the difference between cosmetic surgery
214
533260
3000
08:56
and this kind of surgery.
215
536260
2000
08:58
Because you might say, "Well, this type of surgery
216
538260
3000
09:01
might be regarded as cosmetic."
217
541260
2000
09:03
If you do cosmetic surgery, patients are often less happy.
218
543260
3000
09:06
They're trying to achieve difference in their lives.
219
546260
3000
09:12
Sue wasn't trying to achieve difference in her life.
220
552260
2000
09:14
She was just trying to achieve the face
221
554260
2000
09:16
that matched her personality.
222
556260
2000
09:18
But then we have other people
223
558260
2000
09:20
who don't choose to have facial surgery.
224
560260
2000
09:22
They're people who have their face shot off.
225
562260
2000
09:24
I'll move it off, and we'll have a blank slide for those who are squeamish amongst you.
226
564260
3000
09:27
They have it forced upon them.
227
567260
2000
09:29
And again, as I told you,
228
569260
2000
09:31
if they have a caring family
229
571260
2000
09:33
and good work life,
230
573260
3000
09:36
then they can lead normal and fulfilled lives.
231
576260
3000
09:39
Their identity doesn't change.
232
579260
2000
09:41
Is this business
233
581260
2000
09:43
about appearance and preoccupation with it
234
583260
2000
09:45
a Western phenomenon?
235
585260
2000
09:47
Muzetta's family give the lie to this.
236
587260
3000
09:50
This is a little Bangladeshi girl from the east end of London
237
590260
3000
09:53
who's got a huge malignant tumor on the right side of her face,
238
593260
3000
09:56
which has already made her blind
239
596260
2000
09:58
and which is rapidly growing and is going to kill her shortly.
240
598260
2000
10:00
After she had surgery to remove the tumor,
241
600260
3000
10:03
her parents dressed her in this beautiful green velvet dress,
242
603260
3000
10:06
a pink ribbon in her hair,
243
606260
2000
10:08
and they wanted the painting to be shown around the world,
244
608260
2000
10:10
despite the fact that they were orthodox Muslims
245
610260
3000
10:13
and the mother wore a full burqa.
246
613260
2000
10:15
So it's not simply a Western phenomenon.
247
615260
3000
10:20
We make judgments on people's faces
248
620260
2000
10:22
all the time.
249
622260
2000
10:24
It's been going on since we can think of Lombroso
250
624260
3000
10:27
and the way he would define criminal faces.
251
627260
2000
10:29
He said you could see criminal faces,
252
629260
2000
10:31
judging them just on the photographs that were showed.
253
631260
3000
10:34
Good-looking people
254
634260
2000
10:36
are always judged as being more friendly.
255
636260
2000
10:38
We look at O.J. --
256
638260
2000
10:40
he's a good-looking guy.
257
640260
2000
10:42
We'd like to spend time with him. He looks friendly.
258
642260
3000
10:45
Now we know that he's a convicted wife-batterer,
259
645260
3000
10:48
and actually he's not the good guy.
260
648260
2000
10:50
And beauty doesn't equate to goodness,
261
650260
4000
10:54
and certainly doesn't equate to contentment.
262
654260
3000
10:57
So we've talked about the static face
263
657260
2000
10:59
and judging the static face,
264
659260
2000
11:01
but actually, we're more comfortable
265
661260
2000
11:03
with judging the moving face.
266
663260
2000
11:05
We think we can judge people on their expressions.
267
665260
3000
11:08
U.K. jurors in the U.K. justice system
268
668260
3000
11:11
like to see a live witness
269
671260
2000
11:13
to see whether they can pick up the telltale signs of mendacity --
270
673260
3000
11:16
the blink, the hesitation.
271
676260
3000
11:19
And so they want to see live witnesses.
272
679260
3000
11:22
Todorov tells us that, in a tenth of a second,
273
682260
3000
11:25
we can make a judgment on somebody's face.
274
685260
3000
11:28
Are we uncomfortable with this image? Yes, we are.
275
688260
3000
11:31
Would we be happy if our doctor's face, our lawyer's face,
276
691260
3000
11:34
our financial adviser's face was covered?
277
694260
2000
11:36
We'd be pretty uncomfortable.
278
696260
2000
11:38
But are we good at making the judgments
279
698260
2000
11:40
on facial appearance and movement?
280
700260
3000
11:43
The truth is that there's a five-minute rule,
281
703260
2000
11:45
not the tenth-of-a-second rule like Todorov, but a five-minute rule.
282
705260
3000
11:48
If you spend five minutes with somebody,
283
708260
2000
11:50
you start looking beyond their facial appearance,
284
710260
2000
11:52
and the people who you're initially attracted to
285
712260
2000
11:54
may seem boring and you lose interest in them,
286
714260
2000
11:56
and the people who you didn't immediately seek out,
287
716260
2000
11:58
because you didn't find them particularly attractive,
288
718260
2000
12:00
become attractive people
289
720260
2000
12:02
because of their personality.
290
722260
2000
12:05
So we've talked a lot about facial appearance.
291
725260
3000
12:08
I now want to share
292
728260
2000
12:10
a little bit of the surgery that we do --
293
730260
2000
12:12
where we're at and where we're going.
294
732260
2000
12:14
This is an image of Ann
295
734260
2000
12:16
who's had her right jaw removed and the base of her skull removed.
296
736260
2000
12:18
And you can see in the images afterward,
297
738260
2000
12:20
we've managed to reconstruct her successfully.
298
740260
2000
12:22
But that's not good enough.
299
742260
2000
12:24
This is what Ann wants. She wants to be out kayaking,
300
744260
2000
12:26
she wants to be out climbing mountains.
301
746260
2000
12:28
And that's what she achieved, and that's what we have to get to.
302
748260
2000
12:30
This is a horrific image,
303
750260
2000
12:32
so I'm putting my hand up now.
304
752260
2000
12:34
This is a photograph of Adi,
305
754260
2000
12:36
a Nigerian bank manager who had his face shot off
306
756260
2000
12:38
in an armed robbery.
307
758260
2000
12:40
And he lost his lower jaw, his lip, his chin
308
760260
2000
12:42
and his upper jaw and teeth.
309
762260
2000
12:44
This is the bar that he set for us.
310
764260
2000
12:46
"I want to look like this. This is how I looked before."
311
766260
3000
12:49
So with modern technology,
312
769260
2000
12:51
we used computers to make models.
313
771260
3000
12:54
We made a model of the jaw without bone in it.
314
774260
2000
12:56
We then bent a plate up to it.
315
776260
2000
12:58
We put it in place
316
778260
2000
13:00
so we knew it was an accurate position.
317
780260
2000
13:02
We then put bone and tissue from the back.
318
782260
3000
13:05
Here you can see the plate holding it,
319
785260
2000
13:07
and you can see the implants being put in --
320
787260
3000
13:10
so that in one operation
321
790260
2000
13:12
we achieve this
322
792260
3000
13:15
and this.
323
795260
2000
13:17
So the patient's life is restored.
324
797260
2000
13:19
That's the good news.
325
799260
2000
13:21
However, his chin skin
326
801260
2000
13:23
doesn't look the same as it did before.
327
803260
2000
13:25
It's skin from his back.
328
805260
2000
13:27
It's thicker, it's darker, it's coarser, it doesn't have the contours.
329
807260
3000
13:30
And that's where we're failing,
330
810260
2000
13:32
and that's where we need the face transplant.
331
812260
2000
13:34
The face transplant has a role
332
814260
2000
13:36
probably in burns patients to replace the skin.
333
816260
3000
13:39
We can replace the underlying skeletal structure,
334
819260
2000
13:41
but we're still not good at replacing the facial skin.
335
821260
3000
13:44
So it's very valuable
336
824260
2000
13:46
to have that tool in our armamentarium.
337
826260
2000
13:48
But the patients are going to have to take drugs
338
828260
2000
13:50
that suppress their immune system for the rest of their lives.
339
830260
2000
13:52
What does that mean?
340
832260
2000
13:54
They have an increased risk of infection, an increased risk of malignancy.
341
834260
3000
13:57
This is not a life-saving transplant --
342
837260
2000
13:59
like a heart, or liver, or lung transplant --
343
839260
3000
14:02
it is a quality-of-life transplant,
344
842260
3000
14:05
and as a result,
345
845260
2000
14:07
are the patients going to say, if they get a malignant cancer 10 or 15 years on,
346
847260
3000
14:10
"I wish I'd had conventional reconstructive techniques rather than this
347
850260
3000
14:13
because I'm now dying of a malignant cancer"? We don't know yet.
348
853260
3000
14:16
We also don't know what they feel
349
856260
3000
14:19
about recognition and identity.
350
859260
2000
14:21
Bernard Devauchelle and Sylvie Testelin, who did the first operation,
351
861260
3000
14:24
are studying that.
352
864260
2000
14:26
Donors are going to be short on the ground,
353
866260
3000
14:29
because how many people want to have their loved one's face
354
869260
3000
14:32
removed at the point of death?
355
872260
3000
14:35
So there are going to be problems
356
875260
2000
14:37
with face transplantation.
357
877260
2000
14:39
So the better news is
358
879260
2000
14:41
the future's almost here --
359
881260
2000
14:43
and the future is tissue engineering.
360
883260
2000
14:45
Just imagine,
361
885260
2000
14:47
I can make a biologically-degradable template.
362
887260
3000
14:50
I can put it in place where it's meant to be.
363
890260
2000
14:52
I can sprinkle a few cells,
364
892260
2000
14:54
stem cells from the patient's own hip,
365
894260
2000
14:56
a little bit of genetically engineered protein,
366
896260
2000
14:58
and lo and behold, leave it for four months and the face is grown.
367
898260
4000
15:02
This is a bit like a Julia Child recipe.
368
902260
3000
15:06
But we've still got problems.
369
906260
2000
15:08
We've got mouth cancer to solve.
370
908260
2000
15:10
We're still not curing enough patients -- it's the most disfiguring cancer.
371
910260
3000
15:13
We're still not reconstructing them well enough.
372
913260
3000
15:16
In the U.K. we have an epidemic
373
916260
2000
15:18
of facial injuries among young people.
374
918260
2000
15:20
We still can't get rid of scars.
375
920260
2000
15:22
We need to do research.
376
922260
2000
15:24
And the best news of all
377
924260
2000
15:26
is that surgeons know
378
926260
2000
15:28
that we need to do research.
379
928260
2000
15:30
And we've set up charities
380
930260
2000
15:32
that will help us fund
381
932260
2000
15:34
the clinical research
382
934260
2000
15:36
to determine the best treatment practice now
383
936260
2000
15:38
and better treatment into the future,
384
938260
2000
15:40
so we don't just sit on our laurels and say, "Okay, we're doing okay.
385
940260
2000
15:42
Let's leave it as it is."
386
942260
2000
15:44
Thank you very much indeed.
387
944260
2000
15:46
(Applause)
388
946260
2000

Original video on YouTube.com
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7