The chatty 18-month-old Lehi girl wanders around a small room at Specialized Prosthetic & Orthotic Technologies in Salt Lake City, where Phil Stevens is preparing to take off the mask and adjust it to sit more comfortably on her cheek bones.

Such a mask is ordinarily worn by recovering burn patients or athletes who are trying to protect their broken noses or cheeks from frontal assaults. One literally helped teenager Morgan Grim, a leading scorer for Riverton High School's basketball team, get back in the game last year.

After dislocating his nose in the season opener, Grim wore a custom mask made by the company for the rest of the season and led Riverton to the Class 5-A championship game for the second straight year. He's since signed with the University of Utah.

But patients such as Kamree, whose scars will heal better with pressure applied to them, can also benefit from the technology, Stevens has discovered.

"This is pretty unique," said Stevens, a certified prosthetist and orthotist who is writing a case study on Kamree. "It's taking technology that is used a lot . . . and applying it to her situation."

Born with a 2-inch-wide congenital nevus - or large, hairy mole - on her face, Kamree underwent plastic surgery at 10 months old to have the pigment-producing cells removed.

Doctors had encouraged Kamree's parents, Brandon and Stephanie, to have the procedure done because the nevus could increase their daughter's risk of skin cancer, seizures - even hydrocephalus, or water on the brain.

The toddler's surgery was successful, her parents said. A plastic surgeon was able to remove Kamree's nevus - or "angel's kiss" as her older brother Parker called it - and shave some skin from the back of her head, placing it over the affected area.

A couple of weeks after the surgery, however, Kamree's scar began to bubble up and bunch together, tugging at her nose and right eye. At the deepest part of the incision, her body had tried to heal rapidly, forming scar tissue that pushed up.

Her scar, called a keloid, occurs when there is an overgrowth of tissue. Keloids are hard, rubbery lesions that often feel itchy, painful and, as in Kamree's case, result in a movement of the skin.

"We were hoping everything was going to be perfect," Brandon said, "and then we walk into the doctor's [office] and the first thing he says is, "Oh, no."

The plastic surgeon referred Kamree to University Hospital's burn unit, where burn patients with similar kinds of scars are treated.

Recognizing that constant pressure needed to be applied to Kamree's scar in order to reduce the bubbling and skin movement, a physical therapist gave Kamree a white "Phantom of the Opera"-looking mask that hid most of the little girl's face.

"When we first got that white one I just cried because I was just like, I can't see my child," Stephanie said.

The Woods were then referred to Specialized Prosthetic & Orthotic Technologies, where Stevens began working with the family to make a clear face mask. The first challenge for the specialist was to figure out how to capture a mold of the wiggly toddler's face.

In Kamree's doctor's office, the toddler was given a mild sedative, allowing Stevens to coat her face with warm, goopy plaster. Back in his lab, Stevens filled the impression to make a positive mold.

Stevens then scraped off material in those areas where he wanted more pressure to be applied - in this case, the scar on Kamree's cheek.

Next, Stevens heated up a sheet of clear polycarbonate plastic to about 400 degrees and draped it over the mold of Kamree's face, expelling air so the plastic could suck down around the mold. Once cooled, the mask was taken off the mold, trimmed and fitted with a strap.

While at first Kamree fidgeted with the mask and tried to peel it off at night, her parents said, the toddler has since adjusted to wearing it full time. And it's paying off. Kamree's scar is now smooth and supple, Stevens said. The contractures that once pulled on her eye and nose have ceased.

Kamree will continue to wear the mask indefinitely as her plastic surgeon monitors the progress of her scar, Stevens said.

Someday, her parents hope, it will be hardly noticeable.

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* LISA ROSETTA can be contacted at lrosetta@sltrib.com or 801-257-8762. Send comments about this story to livingeditor@sltrib.com.

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TO LEARN MORE about Specialized Prosthetic & Orthotic Technologies, visit www.spotutah.com.