Josh Ghogan was shot in the right eye while rabbit hunting about 20 years ago.
He went to his local Veterans Affairs hospital in Tennessee to get an artificial replacement, but he hasn't replaced it since.
Artificial eyes should be replaced every five years, said Robert Mann, a medical artist with UF's College of Dentistry.
Ghogan is one of many who solicit the artistic and medical expertise of Mann and his partner, Dr. Glenn Turner, director of UF's department of prosthodontics.
The duo creates facial prosthetics for about 80 patients a year.
Ghogan's new eye was long overdue, Mann said.
The 80-year-old veteran spent about two days in Mann's office as his eye was fashioned and placed in its socket.
At the end of the second day, Ghogan walked out with a brand-new brown eye.
Most of Mann and Turner's patients are elderly people who have lost a nose or an eye during surgery for an illness.
While Mann works, his patients look into the mirrors on the wall, making sure every stroke of acrylic paint is just right.
"We get their reaction to the shape and color as we build them," Mann said.
One recent example of the benefits of Mann and Turner's services was the Flowers family.
Jorden Flowers, the 5-year-old son of Olympic bobsled champion Vonetta Flowers, had two ears created by Mann at the beginning of September.
The ears, which were molded to match his mother's, were the last step in Jorden's journey from silence to sound.
Jorden was born with bilateral microtia, a condition that left him completely deaf and without ears.
After undergoing auditory brain stem implant surgery in Italy about two years ago and receiving new ears from Mann, Jorden can hear. He is learning to speak.
Shortly after receiving his new ears, Mann said, Jorden went to Chuck E. Cheese's for his birthday.
The Flowers told Mann that Jorden was rolling around in the ball pit, and his ears never came off.
Some of his patients aren't so lucky.
Mann said sometimes he gets frantic calls from people who have lost their facial prosthetics.
"Because, well, you know," he said. "My dog has eaten my nose."
