Teeth Help Restore Vision for the Blind
Date: June 21, 2013Category: Author: Infinity Dental Web
As bizarre as it sounds, it’s happening. There is such a procedure called ‘tooth in eye surgery’ or more scientifically ‘oste-odonto-keratoprosthesis’ in which doctors use a patient’s tooth to restore their vision.
The procedure originates back to Rome in the 1960s with an Italian ophthalmic surgeon named Benedetto Strampelli. In 2009, doctors at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine were the first to restore a blind person’s eyesight using the tooth-in-eye procedure.
The patient was Sharron “Kay” Thornton. She went blind nine years previous when diagnosed with the disorder Stevens-Johnson syndrome. Now, keep in mind there are varying degrees of blindness. The surface of Ms. Thornton’s eyes were scarred to the point where she was ‘legally blind’ meaning she could still see to some extent, but her eyes were not fully functioning.
Because the surface was damaged, there was no wetness or tears in Thornton’s eyes. Dr. Victor L. Perez, an ophthalmologist who operated on Thornton said of the new surgery, “So we kind of recreate the environment of the mouth in the eye.” Here is how the procedure works step-by-step:
- A dentist removes a tooth from the patient or donor. It must be a living tooth used as an implant, as the eye might reject a plastic equivalent.
- A sample of dental tissue (a patch of skin from inside of the cheek) is “placed in the eye for two months, where it gradually acquires its own blood supply.” This tissue would become the soft area around the eyeball.
- The modified tooth is implanted into the eye socket with a hole drilled through the center to hold the man-made prosthetic lens.
- I’ll spare you the rest of the gory details and skip to the last step in which surgeons cut a hole in the grafted cornea to allow light through.
Surgeons particularly stress the use of the patient’s own tooth and cheek tissue in the procedure, as there is less of a chance of the immune system reacting negatively to the transplant. After her procedure, Thornton was able to see 20/70 right away and went about daily activities except for driving a vehicle.
Though the surgery was successful otherwise, most specialists predict tooth-in-eye-surgery will not catch on in the United States. Though hundreds of patients have undergone the surgery in Japan and England, surgeons in the US still prefer a technique called Boston Keratoprosthesis which is similar “but uses a prosthetic cornea instead of one grown from dental tissue and does not require cheek tissue to surround the implant.”
The result is a more natural-looking eye, compared to Ms. Thornton’s. One drawback to the tooth-in-eye surgery Thornton experienced was that nothing covered the cheek tissue on the eye, which causes the eye to look different and abnormal — a concern of the patient when out in public.
Looking at the photos of patients post-surgery, I’m not surprised tooth-in-eye-surgery hasn’t caught on in the states…
Dr. Mike Malone and his team practice expert cosmetic dentistry in Lafayette, LA. Dr. Malone is the former president and current accredited member of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. He is also the official Cosmetic Dentist of the Miss Louisiana USA and Miss Louisiana Teen USA pageants. Check out his website for more information.