Eye Tooth Restores Blind Womans Sight

[Jade Tigress]

This is wild.

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Nine years of blindness almost drove Sharron "Kay" Thornton to suicide.

Her hopes were raised when she qualified at the University of Miami Bascom Palmer Eye Institute for a months-long procedure in which an eye tooth (also called canine or cuspid) was implanted in one eye as a base to hold a prosthetic lens. Her bandages were removed over the Labor Day weekend.

Article.

 

[Cryozombie]

Wow, thats freaky cool.

 

[Live True]

That's pretty amazing...i'm curious though:

The tooth and bone were then shaved and sculpted, and a hole was drilled into them to hold the prosthetic lens. Then the whole unit was implanted into Thornton's chest and left for several months, allowing the tooth and lens to bond. This was then implanted into her eye.

What exactly do they mean by "bond"? Does this step and the fact it's her own tooth help with any concerns around rejection? The eye tooth has pretty long roots (from jaw to orbital cavity, I believe). Why are they specifically choosing this tooth?

Very cool...and just fool...er...full of questions!

 

[Ceicei]

This article gives a bit more detail about the surgical procedure done for this woman. Warning: Not for the squeamish to read. http://www.news-medical.net/news/20...surgery-involves-eyetooth-implant-in-eye.aspx

There was another article stating with almost as much detail that also provided pictures to go with it. I suppose anyone with curiosity to do more research can google this. I find it very fascinating!

- Ceicei

 

[Jade Tigress]

There was a pretty graphic picture posted in the link I attached. It's just amazing to me the things that can be done these days. The pic is freaky. But I suppose if I was blind, and this would let me see again, I'd do it. Ironic that they use an "eye" tooth.

 

[Flea]

Not in the mood to look at a gooey photo, but I'm curious ... Would they have to use the recipient's own tooth? Or would a donor tooth do the trick?

 

[Live True]

Not in the mood to look at a gooey photo, but I'm curious ... Would they have to use the recipient's own tooth? Or would a donor tooth do the trick?

I haven't had a chance to read the article Ceicei posted yet, but I did ask a medical researcher freind of mine...and from his response it is VERY important that this be her tooth.

The retina - the place where the lens focuses the image - was working. That's the inside surface of the back of the eyeball where the optic nerve is attached. But the surface of the eyeball was trashed. What to do? There's no place to mount a prosthetic lens if the surface of the eyeball is gone.

So... They take the tooth and part of the jawbone that it's attached to, and cut it out. They drill a hole in the tooth and mount the prosthetic lens in the tooth - probably with some "fibrin glue" (something I did research on years ago). Then they give the "wounded" tooth plus bioglue (basically a scab) a chance to heal around the prosthetic lens. After that, what they're doing is mounting the piece of bone with the tooth/lens and attaching it to the bone somewhere around the eye socket.

This is a pretty firm way to plant the lens. It isn't going anywhere. I'm thinking that this woman is going to have to move her head to see at a different angle. There's no eyeball per se with eye muscles attached, so you have a static lens mount. But it's better than being blind. It would be sort of like having to see the world through a camera held in front of your face. You turn the head to see in a different direction.

Indeed using your own bone means you don't have rejection. And in this case, the cuspid (eye tooth) is attached to this piece of bone.