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We’ve all heard about eye teeth, but have you ever heard of a tooth helping someone regain their sight? Without a doubt, the story sounds incredible, but it’s true.
Sixty-year-old Sharron “Kay” Thornton became blind in both eyes after contracting a rare illness, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, nine years earlier. The damage to the cornea from scarring left doctors unable to try more traditional treatment, like cornea transplants. Doctors tried a stem cell procedure but that was unsuccessful.
As a last ditch attempt to help Kay regain her vision, eye surgeons decided to try a relatively rare procedure called a modified osteo-odonto-keatroprosthesis. Only 600 have been performed throughout the world so far.
The procedure involves taking the canine tooth, also called the eye tooth, and removing it along with a bit of jaw bone. The tooth is then sculpted into the desired shape and a hole is drilled into the tooth. This is where the prosthetic lens is held.
The process is quite long though. At this point, when the tooth has been prepared and the lens attached, another surgery is done to implant the tooth and lens into the patient’s chest, under the skin, where it rests for a several months while the tooth and lens bond. Once the tooth and lens are ready, they are removed and implanted into the eye, after the eye has been prepared (removing damaged tissue).
It’s highly doubtful the procedure will become a popular option for treatment; it’s more of a last ditch attempt. The process is long, requires specialists from both dentistry and ophthalmology and – as a result – could be quite costly. But, if it’s the only thing that works for desperate people, perhaps it is worth all that.
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Image: StockXchng.com
