An EyeTooth Saves An Eye?

Posted by drgracesun on October 3, 2009 under Current News Events, Information | Be the First to Comment

In a story that spread across the news (and the web) in a matter of hours, a revolutionary surgical procedure took place in Florida that essentially used a female patient’s own eye tooth (canine ) as a base to hold a prosthetic lens inside her eye, which was blinded nine years ago due to Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. Blind for nine years, Sharron “Kay” Thornton recently regained her vision through a first-in-the-U.S. surgical procedure at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. The surgical procedure — modified osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (MOOKP) — implanted her canine eyetooth in her eye, as a tissue base to hold a prosthetic lens in place.

The disease, which claimed Sharron Thorton’s vision for so many years is an idiopathic condition (read: spontaneous and of unknown-origin) which causes the epidermis to separate from the dermis in what is often a life-threatening battle. The condition destroys the cells on the surface of the eye causing severe scarring of the cornea. Because the eye is such a sensitive part of the body – which rejects foreign material, including plastics and other man-made objects – a piece of hard natural tissue was needed for the implantation of the prosthetic lens. Because the body would normally reject an artificial base, the eye tooth was chosen as a hard, durable tissue which was composed of natural minerals that the body would not reject.

Corneal specialist Dr. Victor Perez said of the procedure, which was developed in Italy, “MOOKP has proven effective as a solution to end-stage corneal disease where severe corneal scarring blocks vision and corneal transplants are no longer an option but the eye’s internal structures and optic nerve remain healthy. For certain patients whose bodies reject a transplanted or artificial cornea, this procedure ‘of last resort’ implants the patient’s tooth in the eye to anchor a prosthetic lens and restore vision,” he explained.

Before the eye-opening procedure, the eyetooth was actually implanted in the patient’s stomach for several months, in order to expose the tooth to other bodily tissues (blood, plasma etc), preparing the tooth for implantation within the eye. Had the tooth not been cocooned by the body before implantation, the chances of bodily rejection would have been rather high. Medical technologies like these (and revolutionary medical procedures) have helped improve our life so much – dental or other bodily implants have been used routinely with great success, but the bottom line is that prevention still is the best answer for our  health and quality of life. When tragedy strikes – as it did with Kay Thorton – a combination of science and fortune just might save the day.